


The Sound of Sweet Corruption

by 2000aya



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: 1551 - Freeform, Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Fake AH Crew, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gang Violence, Guns, Gunshot Wounds, Heist, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Panic Attacks, Smut, Torture, Violence, gta v - Freeform, hostage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:20:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 48,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24828970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2000aya/pseuds/2000aya
Summary: THIS STORY HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT SUPPORT RH AND WILL NO LONGER BE POSTING STORIES THAT HAVE HIM IN THEM.“What the hell are you doing here?” You asked, stepping aside to let the man in and closing the door behind you.“I was bored and I was in the neighborhood.” Jeremy shrugged and unceremoniously plopped down on the couch.You looked at him questioningly, not buying his excuse. Jeremy glanced at you and rolled his eyes.“Okay fine, I just robbed a store downtown and needed to lay low for a bit.” Jeremy confessed.“That sounds more accurate.” You laughed and came over to sit on the couch next to him. You were no stranger to Jeremy’s job or how he spends his free time. He was part of Los Santos’ greatest gangs, the Fake AH Crew.- or -You were no stranger to your best friend's Jeremy's job or what he does in his free time. You were quite used to it, as long as he keeps you out of it. However, everything you thought you knew about yourself gets tested when out of nowhere you found yourself in the living room of the Fake AH Crew living room with about 7 guns pointed directly between your eyes.
Relationships: Fake AH Crew & Reader, Jack Pattillo/Geoff Ramsey, Jeremy Dooley & Reader, Michael Jones/Lindsay Jones, Ryan Haywood & Reader, Ryan Haywood/Reader
Comments: 58
Kudos: 107





	1. Time to meet the Fakes

**Author's Note:**

> First of all: all characters are based off of Rooster Teeth and Achievement Hunter employees! I do not own any of the characters. This is based in the world of Los Santos from the GTA franchise. 
> 
> With that being said, this is my first work that I am posting on here! Quite excited to share this with you, but also honestly quite nervous! This is a story of friendship, of corruption, of violence, and of love. There will be eventual relationship and eventual smut. Slow buildup. Enjoy your read!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You have a normal life, a normal job, maybe not a very normal best friend, but you never imagined how today would go from boring, to this eventful. Though, maybe this wasn't such a terrible thing in the end?

**Chapter 1**

You were in your apartment, sitting on the couch and channel surfing. It was just one of those days where nothing good was on the tv, but you had nothing better to do. So you continued to sit there and lazily go through the same channels over and over again. You were pretty zoned out at this point and were lost in your thoughts when your phone rang and you got startled. You checked the called ID and immediately smiled. It was your best friend calling. The screen displayed Lil J and you swiped to answer the call. 

“Hello?”

“Y/N! Hey, what are you up to?”

“Literally nothing, J.” You answered honestly.

“Good, I’m outside your door, let me in.” Jeremy said, followed by a soft knock on your front door. 

A little confused, you walked over to the door. Opening it, you saw Jeremy standing there smiling. “What the hell are you doing here?” You asked, stepping aside to let the man in and closing the door behind you. 

“I was bored and I was in the neighborhood.” Jeremy shrugged and unceremoniously plopped down on the couch.

You looked at him questioningly, not buying his excuse. Jeremy glanced at you and rolled his eyes.

“Okay fine, I just robbed a store downtown and needed to lay low for a bit.” Jeremy confessed. 

“That sounds more accurate.” You laughed and came over to sit on the couch next to him. You were no stranger to Jeremy’s job or how he spends his free time and you have long stopped being surprised every time you heard that he pulled another heist or stole another car. He was part of Los Santos’ greatest gangs, the Fake AH Crew. 

The two of you became best friends a while ago when you met at a club downtown and had ended up chatting and drinking together at a booth. The two of you finished an entire bottle of the Jagermeister and were more than a little intoxicated by the end of the day. You exchanged phone numbers and shared an Uber ride. You were dropped off at your apartment and Jeremy drove away in the Uber to his. Nothing happened between the two of you and the next morning you were quite surprised that Jeremy didn’t try anything, but also were questioning whether he hadn’t found you attractive. You quickly learned afterwards that he simply didn’t swing that way. That was 3 years ago. 

Jeremy opened up to you about his real identity when he showed up at your apartment, bleeding and passed out as soon as he got through the front door, the only words leaving his mouth were “don’t call an ambulance, no hospitals. Y/N, promise me.” Unsure of what else to do, you closed the door behind him and dragged his body into your bedroom, stripping him of his clothes to assess his injuries. You knew nothing about medical care, but you took out your first aid and tried your best to stop the bleeding from the two bulletholes. Google came to the rescue there. 

You started to piece things together while he was still passed out when you watched the news of a bank heist that ended up in a large shootout with the police, but afterwards, when he woke up you had a long talk about what really happened and who he was. You weren’t mad at him for not telling you, per se, but you were definitely surprised. You saw Jeremy as one of the nicest people you knew, caring and loving, you just couldn’t think of him as this Rimmy Tim persona. It had taken you a while to get used to it, but eventually you accepted Jeremy for who he was. He was still your best friend. The memories that you had of him were still real. 

Now, sitting on your couch, Jeremy took over channel surfing for you and slowly grimacing when he went through more and more channels.

“This is all trash. There is literally nothing to watch.” Jeremy exclaimed.

“Yeah, I had this exact problem earlier.”

Switching off the tv with a groan, Jeremy looked over at you. You could tell that he was thinking of something and then that mischievous grin came over his face.

“You should come to the safehouse with me.” 

Your eyes widened as you realized what exactly he meant. “You want me to meet your crew?” You asked in disbelief. You heard stories of them, both from Jeremy and the news, but you never really thought you’d meet any of them. The thought of it honestly scared you.

“Yeah, why not? They heard about you, I’m sure they’ll be fine with it.” He said nonchalantly and started to get up. 

It took you a second to realize that he told his crew about you. That made you feel a little giddy on the inside, but you were nervous. You didn’t want to affiliate with the criminal part of Jeremy and you were totally fine being in the background of things. To hear about the stories, instead of experience them. You were ok with working at the little tech company for several years now and being a nerdy computer girl. You really didn’t need to be in on the most notorious gang that everyone including the police forth of Los Santos feared. 

And yet, here you were following Jeremy down to the garage and looking at his Grotti X80 Proto. It was colored in his signature purple and orange, with a Fake AH Crew logo on the side. No hiding his identity there. You stared at it nervously and hesitated getting in. Jeremy noticed your discomfort and put his hand on your shoulder.

“Welcome to the Rimmy Tim-mobile! Don’t worry, I won’t speed too much.” He said confidently and opened the passenger door for you.

_ As if that’s what I’m worried about.  _ You got in and the door was slammed shut behind you. You drove with Jeremy only a few times and he always followed traffic laws, but you were never in his crew vehicle before. The inside of it looked like any other car and you could easily forget about the monstrosity that it was on the outside. Black leather covered the dashboard interior and seats. Jeremy sat down in the driver’s seat and looked over at you.

“You ready?” He asked.

_ No,  _ you wanted to say, but instead you just nodded twice and looked out the window. Jeremy revved the engine and sped out of the garage. Apparently, “not speeding too much” to Jeremy was going 120mph and weaving in and out of traffic, ignoring any and all red lights. Jeremy was a good driver, he navigated the road with ease and drifted into turns easily. Although you didn’t want to admit it to yourself, you kind of liked the adrenaline rush it gave you and when you pulled up to the safehouse, you were a little disappointed that the ride was already over. 

Jeremy looked over smiling at you and laughed a bit. “You good there?” Jeremy asked, still laughing.

“What do you mean?” You asked, also smiling now.

“You look a bit manic there, you’re reminding me of Mogar.” Jeremy responded, laughing harder.

You didn’t particularly like being associated with Mogar, the things you heard about him on the news weren’t exactly the things you’d like to be known for. “I’m fine, let’s go.” You told Jeremy instead and got out of the car.

He also got out of the car and mentioned for you to follow him. He led you to an elevator and then pressed P for Penthouse. Your nerves were starting to get to you and felt a shiver go up your spine. You looked over at Jeremy who seemed completely calm.

“You sure about this, J?” You asked him quietly.

“Definitely, you’ll be fine, Y/N. They’ll like you.” Jeremy assured you and flashed you one of his signature smiles. Genuine, with a hint of mischief. 

Finally the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. On the other side there was a lavish penthouse and you stepped out of the elevator. You immediately heard voices coming from somewhere inside the penthouse. You were taken aback from how beautiful and expensive everything looked. You were sure that your mouth hit the floor.

“Follow me, let me do the talking.” Jeremy said and then strolled in.

You followed him in and walked closer to the voices. You entered what looked like the biggest living room that you have ever seen and there were the Fake AH Crew members sitting on the couches and talking.

“Hey fuckers! I have someone to introduce you all to.” Jeremy announced, all eyes in the room turning to you.

Several of them immediately pulled out their guns and pointed them in your direction. You immediately let out a squeak and cowered behind Jeremy.

“Rimmy, what the fuck?” Asked a man with a mustache and an expensive looking suit. He was standing in front of the couch he was just sitting on and a pistol pointed at your head. His eyes were trained on you with pure anger as he addressed Jeremy.

“Why the hell would you bring a fucking stranger here? Have you lost your fucking mind?” Another man demanded. He had glasses and curly brown hair and looked at you with the same angry expression as the man in the suit. He was holding a rifle that was pointed right between your eyes.

Several more men stood there, all pointing various weapons at you. You shook with pure fear and were close to tearing up, but you stood your ground. Behind Jeremy’s back. There were only a few who remained seated and didn't bring out their weapons. A man who looked to be in his late twenties with blonde hair and a button down shirt sat behind the man with the glasses, curiously eyeing the situation. A man with a beard and long hair sat, looking intrigued. The only woman in the room also didn’t have a weapon drawn, but she was standing next to the man with the mustache. 

“Whoa, guys calm down! This is Y/N!” Jeremy exclaimed, putting his hands up and standing in front of you more, shielding you. One of his hands came round back to grab yours. You were very thankful for the gesture. 

“Ok, and? Why did you bring her here?” The same man with the mustache asked, no one dropping their weapons.

“To introduce you guys! You heard about her, she heard about you. She’s a friend, drop your fucking weapons down.” Jeremy said accusingly. 

No one moved. An uncomfortable silence dragged on as the crew seemed to have considered their options. Finally the woman spoke up.

“Will you boys calm down? There were no hard feelings here. Rimmy just slipped in judgement and that was that. Put your weapons down, the poor thing doesn’t look like she has ever even seen a gun, she’s harmless.”

“She knows our location now, if I shoot her right now, she doesn’t talk.” A man with face paint that obscured his facial features said.

“No!” Jeremy screamed immediately, trying his best to cover you with his body. Jeremy wasn’t a small individual with all the muscle that he packed, but he wasn’t particularly tall, so this was proving to be difficult for him, considering you were 5’5, while he was 5’4. “V, don’t you dare.” Jeremy’s voice suddenly got dark and menacing. You never heard him talk like that and it scared you. All you wanted to do right now was run and get out of this penthouse and never come back. However, you knew better than to make any movements right now whatsoever. 

“V, cut it out. All of you, cut it out. Let’s act like the civilized people we all are here.” The woman spoke up again. “We can talk it out and if we need to kill her later, we’ll do that. Just drop your weapons for right now, please.”

You did not like the sound of that whatsoever, but for right now, it gave you time. The crew looked uncertain but the guy with the mustache lowered his weapon and that seemed to be everything that the rest needed to lower theirs. The only one left standing with his weapon raised was the man with the facepaint that Jeremy referred to as V. You didn’t need to think much to guess that that was the famous Vagabond. The famous and remorseless killer of many poor souls. He stared you right in the eyes with a look so intense, you felt like he was burrowing a hole through you. Slowly and reluctantly he lowered his weapon and sat back down on the couch. Jeremy seemed to have relaxed a bit after that, his shoulders losing the tension in them. 

“Now that we all calmed down a bit, everyone, this is Y/N. The girl I told you all about. Please refrain from shooting her, she’s my best friend. Y/N, this is my crew!” Jeremy said carefully, calculating each word.

“Nice to meet you all” you said cautiously, slowly stepping from behind Jeremy. You were scared shitless, but you somehow managed to stand your ground without bolting out of there. All eyes were trained on you, examining you closely. You felt very uncomfortable by the attention. 

The tension in the air was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Finally, the man with the mustache sighed and got up again. He gave Jeremy a glance and then looked back to you.

“Sorry for that, Y/N. We usually don’t have many visitors here.” He said, looked pointedly at Jeremy for that. “But it’s nice to meet you. We did hear about you quite a lot from Rimmy here. I’m the Kingpin, leader of the Fake AH Crew. Feel free to call me Geoff. This is Jack.” He mentioned to the woman who took your side earlier as she waved at you. Geoff, went around introducing everyone. Mogar, who’s name was Michael, was the guy in glasses, he seemed to still be furious by the situation but he said hello nonetheless. Sitting next to him was the blond guy that hadn't drawn his weapon at you. That was the Golden Boy, Gavin. He nodded at you and said “hi, love” in a British Accent. Next was a tall man with black hair, his name was Trevor. Another man that didn’t pull his gun on you earlier with the beard was Matt. And lastly, Vagabond, or as you found out, Ryan. His eyes never left yours as he was sitting there and scowling, his hands playing with a knife that he pulled out of his holster. A shiver ran through your body as you made a mental note to stay away from him as much as possible. 

The tension in the room dissipated a little bit after all the introductions were done and you relaxed a bit. You recognized everybody’s names from Jeremy’s stories and it was interesting to finally put faces to them. The group finally started talking, asking how you and Jeremy met and what you were doing for work. Small talk continued as you became acquainted with everybody and you slowly saw the team loosen up more around you. Soon enough you were all joking around and playing Mario Kart on a big plasma tv screen. The only one who avoided talking to you for the entirety of the evening was Ryan. He hasn’t spoken a word to you, but his eyes have followed you the entire time. The only times he wasn’t looking directly at you was when he was talking with some of the other members. You felt his stare on you the entire time and you wished he would just say something instead of acting so hostile. But what else did you expect from a notorious criminal like the Vagabond. 

Suddenly the doorbell rang and Jeremy got up. “That’s the pizza, I’ll be right back.” And with that he left you alone with the rest of the Fake AH Crew.

Gavin came over and sat next to you, putting his arm around your shoulder. “So, Y/N, you and Jeremy bang yet?” You choked and Michael laughed next to Gavin.

“Um… no.” You told him, blushing from head to toe. 

“Would you like to bang him?” Gavin pressed on. 

“I wouldn’t want to, no. He’s my best friend, nothing else.” You responded, “Plus, I wouldn’t want to force that on him.”

“What do you mean?” Michael asked.

“Well, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t swing my way.” You said, hoping you didn’t just out Jeremy to his crew.

“Oh, nah. He swings both ways, he just favors the men.” Trevor responded which took you aback, because you didn’t know that about your own best friend. He just always talked about having crushes on men and he never mentioned anything about the women, so you assumed, which now that you think about, you feel ashamed about. The two of you never really discussed your sexuality with each other.

“Huh.” was your only response and the four of you moved on from the conversation, though you noticed that Gavin hasn’t moved his hand and stayed close to you on the couch. You didn’t particularly mind. 

Jeremy returned with three boxes of pizzas and a cheer went around the room. Even Ryan seemed to smile for the first time since you got here. Jack went to the kitchen and came back with paper plates for everybody. She placed them on the coffee table next to the pizzas and all of you dug in. There was cheese, pepperoni, and a meat lover. You grabbed the meat lover piece and a pepperoni piece and sat back down on the couch. Jeremy sat on one side of you and Trevor on the other. You all ate and conversed some more until pizza was gone and your stomachs were content. You checked your phone and saw that it was almost 1am.

“Hey, J?” You called out. He was talking with Jack not far from you.

“What’s up?” He called back, turning from his conversation to face you.

“Wanna start heading out? It’s almost 1am, I have work tomorrow.”

“Oh sure, I can drop you off.” He shrugged, checking his phone as well.”

“Like hell you will, how many beers have you had today?” Jack asked next to him.

“Only like 3.” Jeremy shrugged.

Suddenly a voice behind you called out, “I can drop her off.” You turned around to see Ryan leaning against a wall next to the tv. “I have nothing better to do and you know I don’t drink.”

The thought of the Vagabond driving you scared you, so you quickly turned around to face Jeremy.

“Oh, I haven’t had anything, I can just drive myself or call a cab.” Turning back to face Ryan, not looking him in the eyes, you continued. “Really, I don’t want to bother you.”

Looking over to Jeremy, you looked at him pleadingly. You really didn’t want Ryan to know where your apartment was. You weren’t entirely sure that you would even make it to the apartment with him alive. Jeremy seemed to have understood your panicked look and addressed Ryan himself.

“V, it’s fine. I’ll get her an Uber, you can make sure none of these idiots are too drunk.”

And with that Ryan let out a grunt and walked over to where Gavin and Michael were fighting on the ground for the Xbox controller yelling “my turn” like little kids. Jeremy walked over to you and put a hand on your shoulder. The two of you were walking over to the elevator after saying your goodbyes when Ryan caught up with you two.

“Hey Jeremy?” He asked. Jeremy stopped and turned around. You did the same. “Just so you know, if she tells anyone about this place, I will not hesitate.”

“Ryan, back off. She won’t tell anyone, alright? We can trust her.” Jeremy defended you, looking Ryan straight in the eyes and not backing down.

“Well, I don’t.” Ryan said, giving you one final hard look that sent a shiver of fear down your spine and walked back to the living room.

“Don’t mind him.” Jeremy said and put his arm around you as he escorted you to the streets below. 

After about 15 minutes an Uber pulled up and Jeremy waved you goodbye. You promised to text him as soon as you got home and the Uber driver pulled away. The drive to your apartment was much longer than when you rode with Jeremy, but you were almost going 80 on a freeway, following all traffic laws. Once you made it to your apartment, you took a shower and went straight to bed. The events of the day were swimming around your head when you finally drifted off to sleep. The blue eyes and the hard stare of the Vagabond haunting your dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading! Leave comments and suggestions for future chapters that you would like to see in the story! I will try and include the suggestions! <3 Love you all, Aya.


	2. You Are Not A Good Samaritan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What did Jeremy get you into this time... How will you walk away from this new knowledge?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reader experiences a panic attack! This is your warning.  
> Aside from that: The song lyrics used in this chapter are from the song Good Samaritan by 1551! I do not own the rights to the song! Using this for entertainment purposes only! 1551 is a group that Jeremy is a co-writer and the lead singer! If you haven't listened to them, I highly recommend! <3

It’s been several days since you’ve been introduced to the crew by Jeremy and you haven’t seen him since. Today while you were at work, typing away at your computer, your phone buzzed with a new text message.

_Pick you up after work?_

It was from Lil J and you quickly responded with _sure._

After another two hours, you were done with work and got a new text, _come outside, we’re here._

That made you uneasy. You weren’t sure who Jeremy was referring to and you weren’t sure whether you wanted to find out. Still, you packed up your laptop, grabbed your phone and said goodbye to your coworkers. You came outside to find a blue Bravado Gauntlet with a red stripe going down the middle of it. Jeremy was sitting on the hood of it while Michael was leaning against it. Michael noticed you first and smiled, he waved and shoved an elbow into Jeremy’s side. Jeremy looked up scowling, but then quickly realized that you were there and smiled as well. You waved back and walked over to them.

“What’s all this about?” you asked, looking back and forth between Jeremy and Michael.

“Just wanted to say hi!” Jeremy answered enthusiastically.

“And on the way here, his car got impounded, so that’s why I’m here.” Michael continued, looking at you apologetically, “hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all” you answered honestly. For some reason, Michael didn’t scare you as much as some of the other members of the team. “So what are you doing about your vehicle?”

Jeremy looked at you and mentioned for you to get into the car. Michael opened the door for you and you slipped into the back. Once Jeremy was in the passenger seat and Michael at the wheel, Jeremy turned back to you and answered your question. “Steal it back, of course.”

“You might want to put on your seatbelt, double-o-mogar goes fast.” Michael winked at you and you immediately grabbed on to the seatbelts. 

And with that Michael pressed the pedal to the metal. You were nervous and didn’t enjoy the fact that Jeremy decided to drag you along, but there didn’t seem to be much room for argument there. You were wondering what has changed. Jeremy used to never put you in harm’s way and when the two of you were hanging out, you used to be able to forget that Jeremy was a criminal at all. So what changed in the past week?

Michael was a better driver than Jeremy. He was expertly passing the cars on the road and taking turns like he knew the city’s street like the back of his hand. We made it to the impoundment park in mere minutes and Michael slammed on the brakes. Jeremy looked back at you and asked you to pass him the rifle. You were so focused on the road that you didn’t notice a large gun propped up next to you behind Michael’s seat. You grabbed it and carefully passed it over to Jeremy. He checked that it was loaded and took it off safety. Before he got out of his car, he turned back to you.

“Come sit up front when I leave. Here, take my pistol. You know how to shoot, right?” He asked you as he handed you his gun. Your eyes went wide in terror and you shook your head.

“You live in Los Santos and you don’t know how to fire a gun?” Michael asked, looking at you in pure shock. You shook your head again and he quickly explained. “Ok, so. Always treat a gun as if it’s loaded. Our guns always are, so be careful. This right here is the safety. This is how you know safety on, push it like this, safety’s off. Aim the gun using rear sight here and the front sight here. Always use your dominant eye for this. Keep your sight in focus and your target a bit blurry. Finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot. Shoot the bad guys only please, so not us. Are you left handed or right handed?”

You respond a bit shakely trying to take everything in.

“Ok, place your dominant hand here. Grip the gun high on the back strap. This will give you more leverage against your weapons, helps you control the recoil when it fires. Now place your non dominant hand over here. Press it firmly against the exposed portion of the grip that isn’t covered by your other hand. Ok, good. Now all four fingers of your support hand should be under the trigger guard and your index finger should be pressed hard underneath it.” Michael continued to explain and moved your hand to their correct positions then took the gun from you. “Here, try it yourself.”

You took the gun from him and placed your hands how he had shown you earlier and looked over at him to see if you did it correctly. He grinned and nodded. Jeremy smiled next to you.

“Y/N, you are a natural at this!” He said, which made you both proud of yourself and slightly scared. “Alright, I’m off!” And with that he jumped out of the vehicle and you moved to the front. The pistol felt heavy in your arms as you pondered on whether or not you will have to use it today.

“Relax, he’ll be fine. We’re just providing support.” Michael reassured you. He put his right hand on your thigh and you realized that you were bouncing your leg. It helped you relax and you were grateful. The feeling didn’t last for long, because soon you saw the bright orange and purple race past you and what seemed like half the force of Los Santos Police Department chasing him, sirens blasting, and helicopters in pursuit. “Huh, they sent a lot of them after him. Get ready.” Michael said and began going after them. What you were supposed to be ready for, you weren’t sure yet.

You held on tight to Jeremy’s pistol, your knuckles turning white. Michael turned on the stereo and a song by your favorite group, 1551, came on blasting. You immediately started singing along to the lyrics despite your nerves and Michael looked over at you chuckling. 

_Running_

_Running from_

_Another day away from seeing anyone_

He rolled down the windows and asked you to open the glove box. You did as you were instructed and found the glove box entirely empty except for a small rifle. You gave it to Michael and he thanked you for it. He pulled the rifle out of the window and began firing at the cops, loosening them up from Jeremy and switching their attention to the two of you. 

_Nothing_

_No more common ground_

_Nobody cares to help a man who’s breaking down_

The 00mogar was quickly beginning to be riddled with bullets and you screamed a couple of times that they hit too close to the passenger seat. Michael was swearing and had to take sharp turns several times to loosen up the cop activity around us, but they didn’t give up. 

_Never was_

_Never planned_

_To ever give a shit about a lesser man_

More and more cop cars were pulling up in all directions and there were three helicopters above us. Somehow Jeremy managed to pull up next to us on the left and he brought what looked like the rest of the LSPD with him.

_So turn away_

_And never fail_

_A Good Samaritan is just a thing they tell in the tales_

_A world about you_

_Nobody lesser than_

“What is up with them today? They usually don’t send this many for us breaking our car out of impoundment.” Michael swore, concentration clear on his face. “Y/N, there is a car approaching from your side, I can’t reach them from here. I’m gonna need you to shoot out the driver, can you do that for me please?”

_A Good Samaritan will never rear his head again_

You looked out your window and saw who Michael was talking about. You pulled your pistol up and tried to steady your shaking hands. 

_Nobody lends a hand_

You tried to remember everything Michael told you about earlier and positioned your hands correctly, pulling it off of safety and aiming at your target. 

_Nobody ever cares_

Your hands were shaking both from your nerves and the vibration of the car and you couldn’t steady them.

_The most they’re givin’ up’s a fucking load of thoughts and their prayer_

“Focus on your breathing. Don’t hold your breath. Feel your gun and focus on your breath. When you exhale, pull the trigger. You got this. I believe in you.” Michael yelled over the noise of gun fire. 

_No ones there_

You have never killed anyone. You have never fired a gun. You have never been in a car chase away from the cops. You have never driven in the same car as a criminal. Well, you guess you have, because you’ve ridden with Jeremy, but not in settings like this. Them asking you to do something like this was absolutely insane and ridiculous and you should say no and ask them to drop you off somewhere and you should just go home.

_No one cares_

_So why then did you lift your gun up and pointed it at the cop driving the police car next to you and why then did you pull the trigger when you exhaled?_

_Another body_

_Buried in thoughts and prayers_

The car skidded off the road and hit a guardrail on the side, spun around and hit two more police cars before they exploded. The adrenaline rush you got from it was insane. Michael whooped loudly and chuckled. Completely unlike yourself, you were chuckling with him. Another car pulled up next to you and without even having to be asked you popped the driver on the third shot after the first two went a little low into his door.

“You’re a natural!” Michael praised and continued showering cops with bullets from his rifle. At some point during the drive you lost Jeremy in the chaos, he must have taken another route. 

Eventually Michael pulled into a tight alley and turned off the engine. The sound of sirens raced past you and continued further and further down the road. The two of you sat in silence and caught your breath. You couldn’t believe what you have just done and the reality of it started to set in. “Hey, you ok?” Michael asked you worriedly.

You started to choke up on your own breath. Your lungs felt like they were closing in and air wasn’t getting fully in. You started to hyperventilate and you dropped your pistol, that wasn’t on safety yet, but it thankfully didn’t go off. Your vision was hyperfocusing on one spot in front of you and didn’t seem to be able to look away from it. Your ears were ringing loudly, blocking out all other sounds. Finally, you snapped out of it when Michael shook you. Hard.

You took a sharp, deep breath and exhaled it slowly. Michael’s hands were still on your shoulders, but the ringing had stopped and your vision wasn’t as blurry. Michael’s eyes were searching your face and when he had found what he was looking for he dropped his hands and sighed. He got out of his car and mentioned for you to follow him. You got out of the passenger seat and picked up the abandoned pistol, putting it on safety and handing it to Michael.

“You might need it, keep it. Plus, it’s Jeremy’s, but he has a bunch more.” Michael said and looked you over once more. “Come here.” Michael said and opened up his arms like he was asking for a hug. You looked at him questioningly, but he just tilted his head and kept his arms up. Finally, you came over and let him hug you. It put you at ease and the remaining nerves that you have felt earlier disappeared. You stayed like that for a minute or so, but Michael’s phone began to ring, the sound echoing through the small alley. He took it out from inside his coat and answered it.

“What’s up? You good?” He asked, mouthing _Jeremy_ to you. “Yeah, we’re fine. I’ll send you my location right now. Oh, sure, that sounds better, we’ll see you there in 5. Alright, sounds good, be careful. I know, see you soon. Bye.” Michael hung up and started walking back towards his car. “Get in, let’s go.”

You obliged and got back into the passenger seat. “Where are we going?” You asked as Michael reversed out of the alley and started speeding back towards the highway.

“Penthouse. You’ve been there.” The memories of that day were still mixed for you. On one hand, you enjoyed the company of the crew. On the other hand, you didn’t want guns pointed at you again. You squirmed in your seat at the thought of it and Michael must have noticed. “Hey, you’ll be ok. I’m sorry if we overreacted a bit last time. You know, it’s our safehouse. We live there. Only crew allowed. We usually don’t let strangers in. Jeremy also could have given us a bigger warning and not show up unannounced, but still. I promise, no guns will be drawn this time.”

That did put you at ease, but you still rode in silence for the rest of the trip there. The elevator ride up felt tense and you kept squirming and fidgeting with your hands. The adrenaline rush from earlier having nowhere to go towards, was still pulsing through your body. Michael hasn’t said anything or mentioned your state, he was busy texting away on his phone. The elevator felt like it was stretching out the time. The first time you rode it took mere seconds and here you were counting out the minutes that it was taking to get there. Finally, the doors opened with a ding and you were greeted by the same expensive furniture you remember from last time. Without giving you as much as a glance, Michael walked in and navigated the penthouse expertly with his eyes still glued to his phone. 

You walked to the same living room you were in several days ago, slightly expecting guns to be drawn at you again. Instead, people waved at you and greeted you with warm smiles. You recognized most people in the room, except for a young woman sitting next to Jack and talking, and a man who looked surprisingly a lot like Trevor, talking with him. The woman looked beautiful and dangerous all in one. She was wearing a crop top and tight jeans and had a darker skin complexion. It took you a second to tear your eyes away from her.

Michael was greeted by a very excited Gavin and he jumped up and grabbed on to his neck, bringing him into a hug. Michael was still trying to type on his phone around the body of Gavin. He shoved Gavin away saying something along the lines of, _get the fuck off of me_. Gavin finally let go and came over to you, giving you a gentle hug as well.

“How’s it going, love?” He asked as he let go off you.

“Doing ok.” You answered, trying to assess within yourself whether you were being honest, and you surprisingly were. The adrenaline from earlier has settled down and you were no longer freaking out. You felt calm. It was unsettling. 

“Glad to hear it! What have you been up to?”

Before you were able to chime in on the answer, Michael has answered for you. “She was great today. Killed at least six pigs.”

That silenced everyone in the group. All eyes fell on you and then on Michael. He finally finished whatever it was that he was doing on his phone and looked up at all the questioning eyes on him. 

“Did I just hear that correctly?” Trevor asked.

“Yeah, Rimmy gave her his gun and I explained how it works and she helped me when we were in a chase.”

You hated how all the eyes were on you, looking you over like they were looking for something, seeing you in a whole new light. You noticed that Ryan was standing at the edge of the kitchen with a Diet Coke in his hand, sipping it slowly while looking you up and down. Being observed by the Vagabond made you uncomfortable and you were squirming under his intense stare, hoping that you could slip away. Suddenly the elevator dinged again and Jeremy walked into the living room. He must have felt the tension in the room, because he stopped in his tracks and looked everybody over.

“What happened?” He asked, walking over to stand by your side and giving you a protective side hug, keeping you close to his side.

“Nothing, just learned that Y/N apparently killed some pigs today.” Jack said from the couch. Jeremy’s face immediately lit up in a proud smile.

“Hell yeah she did! I didn’t see it too well, but it looked like she did well. I told you guys that she is a great addition!” He said and you looked at him confused.

“Addition?” You repeated and J’s smile faltered. He immediately got flustered and looked from you to the others, as if pleading for help there.

“Oh- I- I’m- You- Uh-” He struggled to formulate words and then took your hand and led you out of the room. You heard soft whispers behind you as Jeremy led you to the from lobby of the penthouse. As soon as you were sure you were out of earshot of others, you turned to face him.

“Are you fucking serious? You want me to join the Fakes? Are you out of your mind?” You shot questions rapidly at him, looking at him accusingly. You wanted to yell, to scream, to get angry, mad, hurt, but none of those feelings came up. Instead you were trying to figure out why would he want to propose to the Fake AH Crew someone like you. You knew nothing about crime life, about theft, or murder, or anything else that came with this lifestyle. You were an IT girl at a tech company. That’s what you wanted to be growing up, that’s where you ended up, that’s where you were meant to remain. So how did you end up here?

“Y/N, calm down, please. Look, I’m sorry that you found out about it this way. I meant to bring this up to you a bit later, I slipped. The choice is yours, we’re not forcing you! I just truly think that you have talent. You deserve better than to be cooped up in that office of yours. You can rise with us. Gavin can show you his Golden Web. We can set you up with the most advanced technology. Give you protection. Wouldn’t it be fun to work together?” Jeremy explained, looking you in the eyes. He was being careful with his word choice, trying to make you see his point of view on this, to not spook you. 

You were thinking about what he was proposing. Your life would never be the same if you agreed. The options laid heavily in front of you, there was no way you could make a decision at this particular moment. You looked up at Jeremy. “I don’t know, Jere. You are asking for a lot. I would have to leave my entire life behind me.”

“I know, I know I’m asking for a lot. Hey, you don’t have to give me an answer right now. Think about it. Get back to me whenever you’re ready. The guys did say that they are willing to give you a trial period. See how you fit in, see if you are ready for this lifestyle. I don’t mean to push, but I think you are. I just don’t think you see it yet.” Jeremy looked at you with the most pleading eyes. He was being genuine.

“I will think about it.” You said and that seemed to satisfy Jeremy. He immediately grinned and gave you a hug. The two of you walked back into the living room and when the Fakes saw the two of you walk in they stopped their conversation again, but Jeremy’s smiling expression must have answered their unasked questions.

“Oh, Y/N, come here. I’ll introduce you to these two. This is Fiona and that’s Alfredo. They were out on a mission when you came by last time.” Jeremy said, pointing to the girl you saw earlier and the guy that looked like Trevor.

“Nice to meet you, Y/N! Nice to have another friendly female face around here. Jack and I were getting lonely.” Fiona said, smiling genuinely. A small hint of an accent present. _New York?_ you wondered.

“What’s up? You can call me Fredo.” Alfredo smiled and shook your hand and then went back to talking to Trevor. 

“Hopefully you’ll get used to these guys soon. If you need anything, you’ll know where to find me.” Fiona says and with that she walks away to go and talk with Gavin.

One person you suddenly realize isn’t present in the room is Geoff, the Kingpin. You wondered where he went off to.

“Hey Y/N?” You turned around to find Matt standing there, a controller in his hand. “Michael and I were about to load up Mario Kart, you want in?”

“Hell yeah, prepare to get your ass handed back to you.” You said confidently. You loved that game and believed that you were pretty good at the game. Matt laughed and handed the controller over to you.

“Alright then, we’ll see about that. Hey guys? Y/N believes she can beat both me and Michael in Mario Kart!” Matt announced to the group. 

There was a variety of exclaims and laughter coming from the group. Soon enough you were sitting on the couches, controller in hand and playing Mario Kart. Most people decided to join you aside from Fiona, Geoff (who came back from a room that looked like an office of sorts), and Jack.

After several games, you soon learned that you did not, in fact, hand their asses back to them. Matt and Michael were quite good at the game. You weren’t too sour though, the gameplay was fun, but the commentary was much more hilarious. Everybody yelling at Matt. Michael ended up raging when he was in first and a blue shell came right before the end, leading to Matt winning another round.

“He is sucking off the fucking Devil! That’s the only fucking explanation!” Michael screamed, his face turning red. You were on the floor in tears, your core hurting from laughing this hard.

The rest of the evening was spent playing more video games and eating food that Jack and Geoff have made for the group of you. You were all sitting together, eating, and chatting. Laughter was constant in the room and you were enjoying yourself in this company. Maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad group to join after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading this chapter! Hopefully you enjoyed!  
> I love 1551 so much and will definitely use their lyrics again in the future. Also, Myatt and him sucking off the Devil himself. Had to include that in, how could I not?  
> Leave comments and suggestions for future chapters that you would like to see in the story! I will try and include the suggestions! <3 Love you all, Aya.


	3. Friendship Goals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy has always been a good friend of yours. You know you can always lean on him if you have a bad day. And today was no exception.

_ Think about it. Get back to me whenever you’re ready.  _ Jeremy’s words echoed in your head. A week has passed since the preposition was given to you and you still laid awake at night thinking about it. That wasn’t your lifestyle. You were loving your ordinary, normal life, you never wanted to get involved in the criminal activities that Jeremy partook in… Well if that has always been the case, why haven’t you said no yet? Why does that life entice you so badly that you are ready to drop everything you’ve ever known and go chasing after it? Why were you so inclined to say  _ yes,  _ instead.

With a groan, you turned to your side and tried to go to sleep. You glanced at your digital watch on the bedside table and the green light read 3:18am. With a sigh, you sat up and turned the light on. You took your phone off the charger and unlocked it.

_ You up? _

_ Yeah, what’s up? _

_ Can’t sleep _

_ Noticed. Something’s wrong? _

_ No, not really. Just…  _

_ Y/N, you can tell me. _

_ Sigh… It’s- The proposition. _

_ The proposition? What r u talking bout? _

_ The question you asked. _

_ Oh _

_ I can’t stop thinking about it _

_ Y/N, look I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you sleepless nights. I shouldn’t have said anything so early on. _

_ No, you’re good, just… Wanna come over? _

_ Y/N, you’re sweet, but I’m not interested in that. I love you, but like… Almost as a sister, I can’t just… _

_ OMG!!! Jeremy! That’s not what I meant! _

_ Oh…  _

_ JEREMY! _

_ Sorry… _

_ I meant like… Want to come over and pick me up? Maybe go drive around, take my mind off of things. _

_ Oh. _

_ So? _

_ Sure! I’ll be there in 10?  _

_ Thank you. _

_ You sure you don’t want to just go to sleep instead? _

_ No, I want this. _

_ Alright. _

_ C u soon! _

_ <3  _

You turned your light on at your bedside table and quickly put some clothes on. It wasn’t cold outside, but it still gets chilly in Los Santos, so you put on a grey shirt, black jeans, and a denim jacket. You put your phone in your back pocket and put on your white sneakers. After locking the apartment door and putting away your keys you walked downstairs to meet Jeremy outside.

He was already waiting for you in one of his civilian vehicles. He opened the door for you and you accepted gratefully. He went around the car and got in. Jeremy didn’t smile, didn’t say hello, he was completely cold towards you and it threw you off guard.

“Thank you for picking me up.” You offered. But he just nodded. “You ok?” You asked cautiously, trying to read his expression. He was burrowing his eyebrows, his hands tightening around the wheel. His knuckles were completely white. Jeremy was staring intensely between his hands, his jaw clenched.

“I’m fine.” He let out in an almost animalistic growl.

“J… You can talk to me.” You put your hand on his tense shoulder and he first flinched, but soon relaxed.

“I’m sorry.” Jeremy exhaled slowly and you looked at him questioningly.

“For what?”

“For asking you. For putting that in front of you. For being such a shitty friend. For putting you in danger, most of all.” He said, turning and staring directly into your eyes.

“Jeremy, I don’t blame you for that. The reason that I have been staying up all night, thinking about it, is because… Well… I…” You tried to figure out your own feelings through all of this and grimaced. You wanted to join the Fakes. You really did. But were you ready to admit it yet? To say it out loud?

“Y/N, you don’t have to say anything out right now.” Jeremy said as if reading your mind, “You don’t have to make up your mind right now. I don’t want to rush you for whatever you decide. I’m just sorry I put this out there so fast. You barely even got to know the crew. You only know them as these guys who hang out at our safehouse. They definitely are those guys, but they are also dangerous. I mean, we’ve all killed. Some of us much more than others, but we’re… criminals. That’s who we are. We’ve done things that aren’t even meant to be spoken about. We’ve done some shit.” He sighs and you take in everything that he has said. 

You knew that they were criminals, that they were part of the Fake AH Crew, that they’ve done things; yet, for some reason, it was hard for you to see how the charges they’ve been charged with belonged to the people you played Mario Kart with. How the people you ate pizza with and chatted with were murderers. You knew they were, but you had a hard time distinguishing that they were one and the same. You looked back up at Jeremy who was studying you intently.

“I understand.” was all you could say. He looked you over one more time, before nodding. 

“Wanna get out of this driveway?”

“Please.” you answered and soon you were making your way towards the city.

Jeremy and you decided to drop the topic and have some small talks. Soon the city was fading behind you and you were still on the highway. You were driving for several minutes now and Jeremy still hasn’t mentioned to you where you were going. He was in a much better mood now, but you were getting curious.

“Hey, Jere?”

“Hmm?”

“Where are we off to?”

“Chiliad.” He responded simply, like that was the most obvious response.

“We’re going to Mount Chiliad at almost 5 am?” You asked, astounded.

“Yup.” And that was the end of that conversation.

Soon enough you were at the top of Chiliad looking at the beautiful city skyline. You were sitting on the hood of Jeremy’s car and he took out a blanket out of his trunk and handed it to you. 

“Thank you, I needed this.” you take the blanket and wrap it around yourself.

“Yeah, you looked cold.” Jeremy said, sitting down next to you. 

“Well, that too, but I meant thank you for coming. For bringing me here. I needed a distraction.” As soon as the words left your mouth, you hoped you didn’t ruin the mood, but it seemed like Jeremy didn’t mind. He smiled softly at you and pulled you into his side, putting his head on your shoulder.

“That’s what friends are for, right?”

“Right.”

The two of you sat in silence and watched the beautiful view in front of view. You felt completely at peace for the first time in a long time. It was almost 5:30am now and you could see the first hints of the sunrise. You’ve been on top of Chiliad a couple of times now, but this was the first time that you have been here at night.

“This is stunning. Do you often come up here?” you ask, almost whispering. You didn’t want to break the comfortable silence that fell between you.

“Not for things like this. I always wanted to. The sunrise doesn’t look this good when we’re planning a heist up here.” Jeremy responded. He shivered slightly and you realized for the first time how little he was wearing. He must have been freezing. 

You unraveled yourself out of your cocoon, and offered Jeremy the other half of the blanket. He accepts it gratefully and the two of you cuddle up together. The sun was now up illuminating the sky brightly and you were getting slightly blinded by it. You looked over to Jeremy and studied him. He looked tired, but content.

“Yes.” You looked at Jeremy, letting him understand what you meant. He turned his head to look at you and seemed confused at first. His eyebrows quickly shot up when he realized what you meant.

“You mean that?” He asked, looking concerned, but you saw a hint of a smile creeping in. You thought about your answer one last time and made up your mind.

“Definitely. I want to join the Fake AH Crew.”

Before you knew what hit you, you almost fell off the hood of the car as you got tackled into a hug. You had to catch yourself and immediately the two of you were laughing and lying down on the car. The hug didn’t want to end, so you didn’t let it. Eventually when your elbow started to hurt from the pressure, you stirred to sit back up.

“I’m glad to hear it, I promise you, you will love it!” Jeremy said. He looked like a little kid who just got his dream toy car. His eyes were glinting and he was smiling from ear to ear. It was contagious and from the ache in your cheeks, you could tell your smile was mirroring his. 

Your yawn brought the two of you back to realize what time it was. You and Jeremy stayed up all night, but thankfully it was Saturday morning and you didn’t need to go in to work today.

“You have any plans for today? We should probably get some sleep before the day officially starts.” You tell Jeremy, getting off the car and walking back towards the passenger seat. 

“You need to rest up for sure, I have a quick thing to attend to and then I’ll go and rest.” Jeremy said, but you could tell he was holding something back from you, though you weren’t entirely sure what. You decided to let it go and the two of you sped back towards your apartment.

Once you were back in the driveway, the sun had risen fully and the cool air of the night was replaced by the usual warmth of Los Santos. Los Santos might be a city full of crime, but you were born and raised here. How you didn’t join a gang earlier, was a mystery to you. Your parents always tried to protect you from the desires of the city and have sent you to a boarding school and later to university at a different state, but there was always something about this city that has brought you back here.

_ If only my folks can see me now,  _ you thought bitterly. Your parents were found dead in their own home, shortly after you bought your new apartment. It was less than a year after you got your current job. All that they knew about your parents’ death was that they were assassinated by a sniper. A paid job. Assassin. They were never able to identify who it was or why they were after them. Their murder remained a mystery.

“You seem far away.” Jeremy commented, bringing you back into the present.

“Just thinking…” You tell him, looking him in the eyes. A moment of understanding passed between the two of you. That was one thing you loved about Jeremy, he could always understand you, no words needed. You told him about your parents when you found out about him rolling with the Fakes and he promised that he would try and find anything that he could on them. That proved to be harder than you originally thought, the people who did it were professionals and left absolutely no trace that they were ever there.

“Get some rest, Y/N.” Jeremy said, putting his hand on your shoulder. You smiled up at him and said your goodbyes. Soon you were back at your apartment, lying on your bed, thinking of the decision you’ve made. Before long you were asleep.

The next thing you knew you were woken up at 4:53pm to a loud knock on your door. You got out of bed to investigate. Looking through your peephole you saw Ryan standing there awkwardly. Fear went through your body as you wondered what he was doing here, but then you remembered that you were now also a Fake and your fear of him is irrational. You unlocked the door and opened it. Ryan looked at you like a deer in the headlights. It didn’t seem like he knew where to put his hands and he shifted his weight from one foot to another.

“Um, Y/N! Hi, uh. May I come in?” He asked nervously and you were too dumbstruck by seeing the Vagabond acting so nervous that it took you a second to realize that he was speaking to you.

“Oh, um, yeah, sure!” You quickly responded and let the man in. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, everybody else is busy, so Jeremy sent me.” Ryan responded like that was meant to clear things up for me.

“I- I don’t understand? Sent you here for…” You dragged out the question, hoping Ryan will fill you in. You were obviously missing something.

“Oh, I thought he said that he has already told you that I’m coming.” Ryan said, looking at you confused. He was standing in the middle of your living room, not knowing where to step to. You’ve never seen anyone look more out of place.

“Hmm, maybe he texted me? I just woke up, sorry.” You walked over to your bedroom and retrieved your phone. You had 7 unread messages from Jeremy and 2 missed calls.

_ Y/N, get dressed, I have Ryan coming over to your place _

_ He’s picking you up _

_ Hello? _

_ Are you awake yet? _

_ Y/N? Well, dress nicely, he’ll be there shortly _

_ Hellooooooo?????? _

_ Well, he’s there. Have fun. _

You quickly texted Jeremy back that Ryan was here and you were still asleep. Then you walked back out to the living room. Ryan was sitting at your dining table and you noticed that he was dressed in a business casual attire. A bit nicer than if he was just going to hang out.

“So, I just saw the texts from Jeremy, where are you taking me, again?”

“Can’t tell you, sorry.” Ryan responded. He seemed to have relaxed a bit and looked more at ease. “Just dress in something nice.”

“Yeah, J mentioned. All right, I’ll be right back.”

You walked back into your room and began going through your wardrobe. You pulled out 3 different dresses that were some of the best that you’ve owned and were wondering if this was too much.  _ They did say to dress nicely, this is nice. _ After some deliberation, you chose a dark blue dress with silver lining and an open back. You looked in the mirror and smiled. The dress hugged your body in all the right places and went just a little below the knees. The thin straps held it on your shoulders, a small v-neck left a little tease, without much showing. It was modest, yet sexy. You quickly put on some moderate amount of makeup, and finished off your look with a pink lip gloss. 

You walked back out to the living room where Ryan was watching Discovery Channel and sitting on the couch. He quickly turned the TV off and got up. He looked you over and you saw a small blush creep to his cheeks. That made you blush yourself. Maybe the dress wasn’t as modest as you initially thought. You looked down at yourself, trying to figure out what could have made the Vagabond to blush. Looking back up to Ryan, he was scratching the back on his head, looking at the floor in front of him.

“You um… you look nice!” He said, still not meeting your eyes.

“Oh, um. Thank you.” You said and an awkward silence fell between the two of you. After a minute has passed and neither of you moved, you finally decided to try and break it. “So, where are you taking me?”

“Right, sorry. Um, let’s go.” Ryan blushed even harder and started walking towards your front door. You followed him into the garage. He had a black-and-green Zentorno standing there. It was a beautiful car and he opened the passenger door for you. You thanked him and the two of you drove in relative silence. Ryan decided to turn on the radio and Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked came on. Ryan quickly scrambled to change the song, but you were already laughing.

“Theater, huh?” You asked.

“Um, yeah…” He said, embarrassed. You decided to drop the subject. You didn’t really feel like poking fun at the most known killer in Los Santos.

Soon enough you were pulling up to the Vinewood Casino. The staff there took the car from Ryan and opened the door for the two of you. He tossed the key to them and walked over to you. Ryan offered you his hand and you wrapped your arm around him.

“Shall we? Your party is waiting.”  _ My party? _ Ryan’s arm was muscular. You weren’t sure why that caught you off guard, he did look muscular, you just didn’t really pay it much attention, until now. 

You walked towards the VIP area where you saw the rest of the Fakes already lounging. Trevor was the first to notice you and he looked around telling everyone else something. Soon all the eyes were on you and Ryan. When you came closer to them, Jeremy ran up to you. Ryan let go off your hand and Jeremy hugged you.

“You look hot! Welcome to Vinewood Casino! We’re celebrating!” Jeremy exclaimed. The smell of alcohol was coming off of him.

“What are we celebrating?” you laughed.

“You, of course! You, joining the Fakes!” Jeremy exclaimed and a cheer went through the crowd. “Turn the music back on! You need a drink, come on!” And with that you were led in and given a clear shot.  _ This will be interesting.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May I just say that Ryan is the most adorable and awkward human being and I love it. Also, FRIENDSHIP GOALS! Jeremy is too much and I love him. Hope you enjoyed the story! Let me know what you thought and if you have any suggestions! <3 Thank you for reading! ~ Aya


	4. The Fakes Threw You A Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to celebrate that you're officially a Fake now. Party, dance, and enjoy a good time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note: There is alcohol and drugs in this chapter! Don't do either of those things kids, it's not great for you.

You accepted the shot that was given to you and noticed that the rest of the Fakes have gathered around you. There was no one else in the VIP area aside from the crew. You exhaled sharply and downed the shot. When you swallowed the bitter, spicy taste of vodka and grimaced, a cheer sounded through the group and you smiled and joined in the cheer, bringing the shot glass up.

People came up to you hugging you and smiling, congratulating you on your decision and you felt so honored and happy. People were dancing and drinking, lounging and talking. Jeremy came over to you and led you to the bar.

“Order whatever you want, it’s all free of charge. Geoff owns this place.” That somehow didn’t surprise you. You asked for the menu from the bartender and looked at your options. You ended up ordering a Paloma. Jeremy smiled at your order and ordered himself a shot of Jager with some Red Bull.

“The usual, I see?” You poked fun at him.

“It works, why experiment? You better get drunk tonight.” Jeremy said, laughing a bit. The bartender began preparing our drinks and had them out in no time. You took a sip of your Paloma tasting the tequila, lime, and grapefruit soda in it. You quite enjoyed it and you were sipping away at it with content while talking to Jeremy. Your peaceful conversation was interrupted when hands swung around your shoulder and almost a dead weight leaned on you.

“Hey there! How’s it going?” Gavin slurred, obviously drunk. 

“Hey Gavin, you good there?” You laughed, turning to Jeremy who was ordering another Jagermeister.

“Perfect actually. I am so happy! I knew you would want to join us! I mean, we are pretty great after all.” That made you laugh out loud and you turned around in your bar stool to face Gavin. “Hey, Y/N? Wanna dance?”

“Can you even stand on your own, much less dance?” You asked, Gavin still leaning heavily on you.

“That’s why I’m gonna be dancing with you, not on my own.” Gavin responded, laughing too. 

The two of you got up and you followed Gavin to the dance floor as he was tugging on your arm. You weren’t a great dancer, but you would call yourself a better dancer than Gavin who was flailing around wildly. You were getting lost in the music and the moment. You were moving to the rhythm with Gavin, noticing Trevor, Fiona, and Alfredo close by to you too. Soon you all combined into one big dance group, standing in a circle and jumping to the upbeat song. You were having a blast.

You looked around the room some more, Jack and Geoff were cuddling on the couch in the corner of the room, Michael, Matt, and Jeremy were talking and drinking at the bar, and the only person that you didn’t see was Ryan. You were looking around the room trying to spot him when someone tapped you on the shoulder. You whipped around and bumped into the chest of someone standing really close to you. You looked up to see blue eyes staring back at you.

“Oh, sorry!” You muttered. Ryan stepped back, giving you space.

“No, I’m sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Wanna join us?” You asked, slowly moving to the rhythm again.

“Oh no, I don’t dance.” Ryan said, putting up his hand like he was building a physical wall against it.

“Oh come on, I’m sure you do. Just come.” You grabbed Ryan’s hand and dragged him to the dance floor. It seems the alcohol was getting to you more than you originally realized. The new boost of confidence painting over the fear you had for this man. 

Ryan looked uneasy in the middle of your little dance circle. People started cheering that Ryan was there. He tried to leave, but Trevor quickly grabbed him and shoved him back in the center. Ryan stared daggers at him, but Trevor didn’t seem to notice. The rest of you were still dancing, you were laughing at Ryan’s discomfort. He looked over at you and tilted his head to the side like he was questioning you. That only made you laugh more. At this point Gavin started laughing too next you too and Ryan looked like was ready to murder people to get out of the circle.

“Oh come on V, just have some fun for once, huh?” Trevor said and continued swaying to music. 

The next thing you knew, someone behind you had pushed you hard and you were falling towards the center of the circle, the laughter dying in your throat. Ryan caught you and held you upright. You looked behind you and saw Michael laughing and Gavin on the floor next to him rolling around, holding his stomach.

“What the hell was that for?” You faked being hurt, but you were already losing your composure and starting to laugh as well.

“Y/N, you can dance, get this one to dance as well. This can be your first Trial.” Fiona chimed in. You looked back towards Ryan who met your gaze and the two of you came across a silent agreement. Ryan looked defeated, but he seemed to understand that he wasn’t getting out of this one.

“Is dancing with me really that bad?” You questioned Ryan’s grimace and his eyes went wide.

“Oh! No, not at all. Just, not my scene.” He answered quickly.

“Really? The Vagabond doesn’t usually go to dance parties?” You chuckled and were surprised when Ryan laughed as well. You took his hands and tried moving around to the music. 

At first it was entirely too awkward. Ryan was focusing too hard on what each of his limbs were doing and, for someone who’s career and life depends on being stealthy, he was not very fluent in his motions.

“Relax.” You whispered.

“What?” Ryan asks loudly over the music. You got up on your tippy toes and reached to whisper in his ear. He leaned slightly down to accommodate your height difference.

“I said, relax. You’re too tense.” You 

“Oh.” Ryan said and loosened himself up a bit. The two of you continued to sway to the music and it seemed to come much more natural to Ryan. You felt like you were back in high school at one of the school dances. 

The people around you were cheering and snickering, but you ignored them. You were looking Ryan in the eyes and he reciprocated the eye contact. A hint of a smile crept to the side of his lips. The song eventually ended and you decided it was enough embarrassment for Ryan for one day. The two of you stepped out of the circle and joined Matt and Jeremy at the bar. You ordered another Paloma and Ryan ordered a Diet Coke.

“No drinks today?” You asked.

“No drinks ever. I’m not really into that.” He responds and that took you by surprise. You assumed all the Fakes were drinkers. Maybe you have to stop thinking of the Fakes the way you used to, and start learning more about them. You turned your attention to Jeremy and Matt who were laughing about something and both looking very drunk. They noticed you looking and let you join in on their conversation. The four of you were talking and laughing and enjoying your time. 

After some time, the dance group came over and joined you. There were too many of you to all remain at the bar, so you grabbed your drinks and joined Jack and Geoff on the couches. You sat down and Gavin came to sit next to you. On the other side of you sat Alfredo. You haven’t talked to Alfredo yet, but he seemed like a real nice guy. 

“Well, it looks like our peace and quiet is gone. What’s up with all you fuckers? Having fun?” Geoff asked, letting Jack sit up. 

A mix of positive responses came out through the group and then Trevor told Geoff that you managed to get Ryan to dance.

“V? You danced? Y/N, what’d you do? Drug him?” Geoff laughed.

“I didn’t do anything! Just asked.” You defended yourself. Ryan, who was sitting next to Fiona scowled.

“More like left me no other choice!” Ryan grumbled.

“No other choice? Ryan are you going soft? Would this have been anyone else, there would have been at least three death threads coming their way.” Geoff teased him.

“Hey Geoff? If you don’t shut the fuck up right now, I will slit your throat, so the only noises you’d be able to make were gurgles.” Ryan said with a straight face looking Geoff directly in the eyes and a shiver went through your back. 

His words brought you back to the reality that these were not the people to mess with. Geoff looked at Ryan equally as intimidating. The room got quiet as everyone tried to interpret whether these threads were going to be followed through. Then Ryan and Geoff both erupted into laughter and the rest of the crew relaxed. You felt like you got whiplash watching the exchange in front of you.

The rest of the evening was spent in pleasant conversations and laughter. You had several more drinks and soon the nice feeling of buzzed, turned to the room slowly turning as you sat on the couch. At some point you ended up leaning on Alfredo, but he didn’t seem to mind. The strong smell of weed came from your right and you turned to see Jeremy, Matt, and Michael all sharing a joint. You never had weed before, you were never really invited to those types of parties, but it never stopped you from being curious. With any thought process already being gone, you called out to Jeremy.

“J?” He must have not heard you over the music, so you tried louder, “Jeremy!” That got his attention and he turned to face you. “May I have a hit?”  
“Of course!” He responded immediately. He handed the joint and the lighter to Michael who passed it to you. You took both in your hand carefully and looked up to Jeremy for instructions. “Have you smoked a joint before?” You shook your head and he came over to kneel in front of you. “Just inhale slowly and try just a little bit at first. Hold it in once you have it and then slowly exhale, ok?”

You nodded and put the joint in your mouth. Jeremy took the lighter from you and lit it up properly. You slowly inhaled the smoke and let it sit in your system for a second before taking the joint out and slowly exhaling. White smoke blew out of your mouth into Jeremy’s face, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“How was that?” Matt asked. You turned to see Michael and Matt both watching you intensely.

“It was good, I think.”

“Here, have another hit.” Jeremy said, bringing up the lighter again.

You inhaled slowly again, but this time, the smoke felt like it got caught in your lungs and you coughed it back up. Your lungs felt like they were burning. You continued to cough while Michael started laughing. Matt elbowed him and gave him a look. 

“You ok?” Jeremy asked. 

“Yeah, I’m… fine…” you managed through coughs. “Can I retry it?” You asked after your coughs have subdued.

“Of course.”

You tried again and this time, succeeded. The four of you were passing the joint around, after another couple of hits your mind started to feel cloudy. There was mist swimming in front of your eyes and everybody’s movements went into slow motion. You felt fully relaxed and you sinked further into the couch. Matt offered you another hit, but you decided to decline.  _ I think I had enough. _

Looking over to your left, Alfredo was sitting and talking to Trevor. You couldn’t really focus on their conversation, so you just leaned over and rested your head on his shoulder. Alfredo looked over at you and adjusted so you felt more comfortable. It was a small gesture, but you appreciated it. You were watching the rest of the crew, a small smile on your lips. This was your crew. Your new family. Tomorrow morning you would have to call into work and quit, but that was tomorrow. Today you were enjoying just sitting here, getting crossed, and laughing along with the Fake AH Crew.

You weren’t sure when, but you must have fallen asleep at some point, because next thing you knew, Alfredo was shaking you awake and most of the crew was getting ready to leave. 

“Y/N? You alive there?” He asked. You groaned and sat up. The world was spinning and you would have fell on the other side of the couch if Alfredo wouldn’t have caught you. “Whoa, how much did you have today?”

You slurred something along the lines of  _ not much _ , and leaned back into his arms. Suddenly, another pair of arms grabbed on to you and lifted you off your feet. You looked up to see Ryan carrying you bridal style.

“I got her, I haven’t had anything and I know where she lives. Fredo, you go ahead.” He said and started carrying you towards the exit. He was strong. You could slightly smell weed on him. You didn’t see him take a hit. He was sitting next to Michael. That’s probably why. 

You tried to think where Ryan was taking you, but thoughts were hard to come through at this moment. You nuzzled into his neck and adjusted yourself to fit better in his arms. Suddenly you stopped and you could hear Ryan talking to someone. It was a familiar voice.

“V, you good? I can take her.”

“Jeremy, you can barely stand on your feet, it’s fine I’ll take her.”

“No seriously, like I can drive her, you don’t gotta.”

“Jeremy, go home and rest. I’ll just drop her off and leave. Don’t worry. She’s in the crew now. She’s family. Right?”

“Right.”

“I got her, okay? You can trust me. I won’t let anything happen to her.”

“I know, sorry. Just, text me? When she’s home?”

“J, if you’re this worried about her, why did you let her join the crew?”

“She’s safer with us, Ryan. Especially… Well, you know.”

“Yeah… I do. We’ll keep her safe, Rimmy. Don’t worry.”

“Thanks V. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Of course.”

And then Ryan was moving again. You couldn’t understand what him and Jeremy were talking about, but Jeremy sounded worried. You hoped he was ok. Whatever he was worried about, sounded dangerous. You tried to remember what it was, but the conversation already seemed too far away.

Ryan placed you carefully into the passenger seat of his Zentorno, bucked you up, and got into the driver seat himself. He pulled out of the Casino and towards your apartment complex.

“Hey Ry?” You asked, wondering where the nickname suddenly came from?

“Hmm?” He asked, keeping his eyes on the road. He was driving carefully, probably to not bring attention to the road, but possibly to also not give you motion sickness.

“Thank you.” You said, trying to sit up better in your seat.

“For what?” He asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Taking me home. Are you always the designated person?” You asked, looking up at Ryan better now. You were trying to ignore the moving streets outside your window to not get sick, so instead you focused on Ryan’s facial features.

“First of all, this was no bother to me. You came here with me, I might as well drive you back. Second of all, I just don’t drink.” He said, giving you a quick glance before returning his attention to the road.

“Oh.” Was all you said and sat quietly for the rest of the ride. When you made it to your apartment driveway, Ryan pulled into the garage and went to help you out the door.

“Want me to carry you, or can you walk?” He looked you over, trying to figure out your state.

“I think I can walk, but you can help.” You told him. He agreed and got close to you, letting you lean on his arm. You thanked him and the two of you walked over to the elevator. 

Once you got to your floor you fumbled around in your purse for your keys. Eventually you found them, but you struggled unlocking the door. Ryan took your hand and helped you steady it to open the door for you. The two of you walked in and made your way to your bedroom. You sat down on the edge of your bed and looked up at Ryan. The Vagabond was standing in the middle of your room looking around awkwardly. Now that Ryan got you to your apartment, you weren’t sure what to do next.

“So, I guess I’ll go now.” Ryan said. You nodded, not sure how else to respond. “I’ll text Jeremy and let him know you’re home safe.” You nodded again and just watched Ryan as he took out his phone and typed away on it.

“See you tomorrow?” You asked, which seemed to have caught Ryan off guard. He looked down at you and shrugged.

“Sure.” He said coldly. You wondered what you did for the sudden change of attitude from him. Then again, this was the Vagabond. There was no predicting him. Just when you thought you understood him and started to learn more about him, you felt like you took 10 steps back.

After Ryan finished his texting, he shoved his phone back in his pocket and said his goodbyes. He left your apartment and you were left alone, sitting on your bed, contemplating the events of the day. Your head was still clouded and thoughts were hard to understand, so instead you opted to go to bed. 

You took off your dress after a bit of struggle and threw it towards a chair in your bedroom. You didn’t check to see if it had landed there, instead you passed out almost as soon as your head hit the pillow. The last thought on your mind about the hangover you were sure to get the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading another Chapter! I wanted to finish it up a bit today, so posted it a day later than I wanted to. Love you all! Let me know what you think so far! <3 Comments, kudos, and suggestions are greatly appreciated! ~ Aya


	5. Move In Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to pack your bags. You're moving!

You woke up startled to your phone going off in your apartment. Your head was pounding and muscles ached. You turned over to your bedside table, but your phone wasn’t there. You searched around the room, stumbling a little, until you found it still in your purse from last night. Last night! The party, the drinks, the dancing, the weed, the ride home. Everything came rushing back to you in a blast of memories and jolted you awake. You fished out your phone from your purse and checked the caller ID. The bright screen caused you to squint to avoid a headache and focus in, reading the words on the screen. _Lil J._

“Hello?”

“Rise and shine! Trevor is picking you up in a few and bringing over a bunch of boxes. He’ll help you pack.” Jeremy sounded excited on the side of the line.

“Pack? Pack for what?” You asked, trying to make sense of his words.

“What do you mean for what? You’re moving in!” Jeremy exclaimed, hurting your ears a little from the sudden change in volume.

“Please don’t scream. Moving in where?”

“Right, how’s your head? I can ask Trev to stop by and get you some Aspirin.”

“It’s alright, I have some in my medicine cabinet. You still haven’t answered my question though.” You prodded.

“Right, right! Into the penthouse! All the Fakes live together. We already have a room ready for you! It’s from a member of ours that left several years ago... Been empty ever since, but I mean. We knew it would be filled again soon enough!” Jeremy announced excitedly. You took a second to realize what this meant. Not only were you quitting your job today, but also moving out of your apartment. The first apartment that you really got on your own. 

“Oh, I see.” You answered.

“Hey, chin up! You’ll still have it. It can be your safe house of sorts. Like a stake out place.” Jeremy’s voice calmed you down. He must have sensed your distress at the news.

Just then a knock sounded at your front door. You were about to go answer when you looked down and noticed that you weren’t dressed yet.

“Hey J? Trevor’s here and I still need to get dressed, so I’ll text you later, ok?”

“Sure thing! Talk to you later, Y/N! We’re getting everything set up on our end.”

And with that Jeremy hung up and you were back in your bedroom, quickly putting on some clothes. You came out to the living room and immediately shielded your eyes from the light that was seeping through the open blinds. You made it to your front door and checked the peephole to see Trevor standing there with a bunch of folded cardboard. You opened the door and was greeted by a wide smile.

“Hey! You’re awake!” Trevor exclaimed. You laughed and explained your earlier conversation with Jeremy as you let Trevor in. He is now the 3rd member of the crew to visit your apartment in the past month. _Month._ It was hard to believe it has almost been that long since you were first introduced to the crew. 

You walked into your kitchen and opened the medicine cabinet. After rummaging around there for a few minutes, you finally found your bottle of Aspirin and popped a couple of pills in. You downed them with some water and turned to see Trevor watching you. You looked at him questioningly and he seemed to have noticed what he was doing.

“Oh, sorry! Didn’t mean to stare. I was just, um, wondering, how are you feeling? You were, well um… pretty out of it yesterday. I mean, I was too, most of us were, but yeah. Just wanted to see how you were doing. Yup.” 

You looked at Trevor in silence for a second before bursting out laughing. He certainly wasn’t the type of person you originally thought he was. Your original opinion of him was of this strong guy who could probably knock you out in second, which still held true. But you also realized that there was more to him. To all of the Fake AH Crew. The more you hung out with them, the more you realized that they were all pretty big goofballs and you enjoyed getting to know that side of them. The conversation between Ryan and Geoff popped in from last night and you had to remind yourself to not forget that they were still criminals and yet, they were also just… people. 

“I’m doing alright, Trevor. Just a headache. I’ll live. I was pretty out last night, wasn’t I? I remember the beginning of the night very well, but the end of it is pretty hazy.”

“Yeah, you fell asleep, curled up next to Fredo. Ryan took you home though and it looks like you are alright, so I’m assuming he got you here safely.”

“Guess so.” you shrugged and motioned for Trevor to follow you to your bedroom. The two of you started packing up your clothes into the boxes Trevor got for you, but you decided to leave a couple of pieces in the apartment in case, like Jeremy said, you had to lay low for a bit. 

It was weird to think about. You, of all people, having to lay low and hide from something that might happen in the future. It just seemed so unlike you. Then you remembered your work. You still haven’t called in to quit. You excused yourself and let Trevor continue packing up the boxes while you took your phone and went into the living room.

You scrolled through your contact list until you came across the name you were looking for. You took several long, deep breaths before you dialed the phone number and counted each of the beeps that sounded before your boss finally picked up the phone. _4._

“Hello, this is Miles.”

“Hey Miles, it’s me.” You replied, hoping your voice wasn’t shaking too much.

“Hey Y/N, what’s up?” Miles said in his usual upbeat tone. _How am I gonna do this?_

“Hey, um, Miles… Well, here’s the thing. Um…” You were trying to figure out the correct words and you were starting to really hope that you prepared for this speech earlier. 

“You ok?” Miles asked, concern clear in his voice.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m ok. Just um. Well…” You took a deep breath. No point in prolonging this any longer. “Miles, I’m sorry, but I’m gonna have to quit.” You took a shaky breath as you relaxed a bit. There. It was out.

“Quit? Y/N, you can’t quit! What are we gonna do without you? Wha- Why?” The hurt in Miles’ voice made you want to take it back that second. You loved working with your boss, you really did. He was one of the sweetest people you’ve ever met and it was killing you on the inside to do this to him, but there was no going back now.

“I’m sorry. I got an offer and I just… It was an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“How much are they paying you? I can talk to Matt Hullum, see if we can possibly give you a raise. Y/N, you have been such a valuable member of our team, we can’t just let you go.” Miles said. It was touching to know that he was willing to do that for you.

“Miles, I’m sorry. I loved working with you. I’ll miss the company a lot.” After a second of silence, Miles finally responded.

“I understand. I’m sorry to lose you, but I hope that wherever it is that you are going, we can possibly collaborate some time. Sounds good? We’ll miss you.” Miles said, sounding defeated. 

You wanted to comfort him so badly, but he had no idea what you were getting yourself into. Did you really know what you were getting yourself into? A collaboration probably wasn’t the greatest idea, but you replied with _Sound good_ , anyways and said your goodbyes. After you hung up the phone, you wiped the tear that you didn’t know you shed off your cheek and turned around. Trevor was leaning in the doorway between your bedroom and your living room, looking down.

“Damn, some privacy please?” you told him, feeling slightly offended that he listened in to your conversation.

“Sorry, just… We’ve all been there, Y/N. Most of us had other jobs we did before we became part of the gang. Some of us were rolling with other gangs before we became the Fakes. We’ve all been there. I’m just sorry you had to go through that, because it’s never fun. We’re here for you if you ever need us. We’re all family now.” Trevor said. He looked up and looked you in the eyes and you saw the hurt in his eyes that you have never seen before. At that moment you realized that the Fakes must have lost people. You don’t become a criminal and expect to never have losses. There must have been important people, that they have cared about, that they have lost. The realization that you might lose someone or be the someone they lose made you uneasy.

“Thanks Trev.” And with that, the two of you finished up packing and moved all the boxes into Trevor’s car.

Taking one last look at your apartment, you closed the door and left a spare key behind your outside light. You turned around to see Trevor waiting for you patiently.

“Come here.” He opened up his arms and you accepted his hug.

After a minute or two, he let you go and both of you walked down to the garage and got in his car. You looked back at your apartment building for the last time as Trevor pulled away and the two of you were on your way to the safehouse. The radio was playing the top hits of the week as you were watching buildings blur past you. Your thoughts began to wonder and you thought back to yesterday. Yesterday you had a job, you were having fun with friends, you felt safe and secure. That feeling was rapidly wavering. 

_Safe and secure._ A conversation between Jeremy and Ryan from last night popped into your head. You have almost forgotten about it, but one line stuck out to you now. _She’s safer with us, Ryan. Especially… Well, you know._ What was Jeremy talking about? You couldn’t think of what he could be talking about, but you made a mental note to ask him about it later. _She’s safer with us._

“Y/N?” Trevor’s voice broke you out of your thoughts. You turned to face him and noticed that the car was parked. You made it already.

“Oh shit, sorry!” You got out of the car and were about to help Trevor unload your things when you noticed Michael and Alfredo standing there.

“Hey there, so how much shit do we have to carry?” Michael greeted you. You smiled and opened the trunk.

Trevor came around to the back of the car to join you and walked up to Alfredo. The two of them did a quick secret handshake and then Trevor hugged Michael.

“Not all that much, just about seven _hundred_ boxes.” Trevor exaggerated, which earned him a slight shove in the shoulder from you.

“Okay, I might be a girl, but even I don’t have _that_ much stuff.” You laughed and let the boys take some boxes and help you carry them to the elevator. 

As soon as the elevator opened you were tackled into a hug from Jeremy. 

“Can’t believe we’re finally roommates! How many times have we talked about getting an apartment together?” 

You laughed along with him and were begging him to let you breathe. “At least a dozen times. So, where’s my room?” Jeremy finally let you get up and showed you the way.

You walked in a different direction of the living room and the kitchen and saw a hallway with a bunch of doors. Each one had initials in front of them. As you passed them, Jeremy explained each one.

 _GLR_ \- Geoff

 _JSP_ \- Jack

 _MVJ_ \- Michael

 _GDF_ \- Gavin

 _AD_ \- Alfredo

 _TC_ \- Trevor

 _JND_ \- Jeremy

 _MMB_ \- Matt

 _FN_ \- Fiona

 _JRH_ \- Ryan

“And finally, your room.” Jeremy stated. 

“So I’m roommates with the Vagabond and an empty room?” You poked fun at Jeremy. You didn’t really mind, you were pretty indifferent about it.

“Is that a problem?” You spun around to see Ryan had exited his room and was leaning against the door frame. 

“Oh yeah, definitely.” You faked an insulted tone. Ryan seemed to pick up on your game and walked up closer to you. He towered over you and you felt like shrinking away. He was not a small man. Ryan leaned down and whispered in your ear.

“Well, I better be a good neighbor to you then. Make you change your mind.” And with that he took a step back, winked, and walked back into his room like nothing had happened.

Jeremy looked between your shocked, blushing face and Ryan’s closed door. 

“What just happened?” He asked. You shook your head to snap out of it, feeling your cheeks burning.

“No clue.” You shrugged and opened your door.

Inside was a room of a pretty good size. It reminded you of a dorm room, just more luxurious. There was a bed against the wall on one side of the room, a desk on the other. A bedside table stood by the bed, there was a nice looking bookshelf that was empty, and two doors. You walked over to one of them to find a walk-in closet, about half the side of the previous room. Another door led you to the bathroom. It contained a sink, shower, bath, and a toilet. It was about the same size as the walk-in closet.

“You like it?” Jeremy asked, watching you closely.

“Like it? Dude, I love it!” You exclaimed. You felt the excitement come up and spread throughout your whole body. You were almost jumping up and down from it all. You looked over to see Jeremy happily stand there and then he opened your door and mentioned for someone to come in.

“Fucking finally!” You heard Michael outside your door.

“Took you guys long enough, this is heavy. I thought it was just clothes!” Alfredo whined as him, Michael, and Trevor brought all your boxes in. It only took two trips. 

After they were done, you were left alone to unpack and were told to meet everyone in the living room in an hour. The unpacking didn’t take too long. You spread your clothes out through your closet and finally took a step back and admired your work. You still had 20 minutes till you had to be in the living room, so you decided to take a quick shower.

After you undressed, you walked into the shower and let the water pour over you. It was hot in no time and you noticed different buttons on the shower wall. You clicked one of them and rave lights came on inside your shower stall. Another one turned on the radio. A different one picked up on the police radio station.

There were several more options that you were gonna have to play around with in the future. For right now, you finished up your shower, dried up, and got dressed in fresh clothes. Just as you were about to leave your room, a knock sounded. You opened your door to find Fiona standing there.

“Oh hey! Was just about to come get you. We’re starting.” Fiona said and turned around and walked towards the living room. You closed your door and followed her.

“Starting what?” You asked.

“The meeting.”

You walked into the living room to find everybody else already there. Gavin and Matt waved at you and the rest of Fakes gave you smiles and nods of acknowledgement. As soon as you sat down, Geoff, who was standing in front of the TV, started talking. 

“Now that we have everyone here, let’s start the meeting. First of all, welcome Y/N officially to the family.” A cheer went through the door and you felt your cheeks flare up. “Now that we have a new member of the Fakes, the trials must begin.” Geoff continued. _The trials?_ You looked around the room and most people in the room were excitedly looking between you and Geoff. You weren’t sure what type of trials these were about to be. “As always, we need a volunteer. One thing though. Gavin, you volunteered last time, so you’re out of this one. And Jeremy, you can’t volunteer this time.”

“Wait what? Why the fuck can’t I volunteer?” Jeremy’s protest was immediate.

“Because you are too involved. She’s your good friend, you can’t be distracted by that.” Geoff said sternly. Jeremy tried putting in another word, but Geoff interrupted him. “Nope, end of discussion. Alright, now. Who would like to volunteer?” Several hands went up. Geoff looked around the room. You did the same. Michael, Matt, Trevor, Fiona, and Ryan had their hands up. 

“Trevor, you’re up for this one.” Geoff announced and Trevor looked over at me, grinning. You smiled back. You didn’t mind having Trevor… Help…? You out in these trials. “Alright, and now to spin and determine what the trials will be this time. Jack?” 

You saw Jack bring out an old metal bingo crate that had ping pong balls inside of it. The metal was painted gold and was bent in several places. Jack brought the crate to you and spun it around several times. She then opened the little hatch door and looked expectantly at you. You put your hand in and grabbed a ping pong ball. Bringing it up, your hand got caught in the door a bit and you let a curse. Opening your palm and you turned the ping pong ball in your hand and read what it said out loud.

“Rob a convenience store.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Miles is too pure for this world. Love you guys! Thank you for reading another chapter! Let me know what you guys think! Next chapter should be interesting...


	6. Let The Trials Begin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> QUICK WARNING: blood, murder, car chase, pain.
> 
> Rob a convenience store. That shouldn't be too much trouble right? And you'll have Trevor by your side. So there's nothing to worry about, right? Right...?

“Rob a convenience store.” You looked up at Geoff shocked. You weren’t sure why this was a surprise to you. They were criminals, these were the trials for the newcomers, everything seems as ordinary as it gets with the Fakes. Jeremy told you about his newcomer test: steal a Monster Truck. Ever since that was his nickname around here, aside from Rimmy Tim.  _ I still have to learn everyone’s nicknames…  _

“That settles it then. Rob a convenience store tonight. Trevor will accompany you. You should probably go prepare, so… Let the trials begin!” Another cheer sounded around the room and people started to get up and move around. Several people came up to you and congratulated you. After several words of encouragement, Trevor came up to you.

“Ready for this, partner?” He smiled.

“I guess?” You responded.

“Come on, I’ll talk you through it. If we’re lucky, we won’t need to kill anyone tonight.” Trevor said and his words weirdly put you at ease.

In Trevor’s room you were standing in front of a map of Los Santos, the two of you circled all the convenience stores in the city in red. 

“This one right here” you pointed to one of the red circles, “it has a back alley we can easily escape into, get into a getaway vehicle and drive into the construction zone right here. Exit over here on a highway and head back here as soon as we lose the cops.” You explained with an authoritative tone. You heard enough stories from Jeremy, watched enough news, and seen enough cop shows on Netflix to have a slight idea of getaways. You turned to Trevor who was looking at the map intently.

“Sounds good for plan A. Let’s make several contingency plans as well.” Trevor said. You quickly agreed, not wanting to get stuck somewhere without a backup plan. 

After the two of you went through every possible scenario of what could happen and came up with plans A-Z, you felt much more prepared for what was about to come. Trevor showed you all the warehouses in the area in case the two of you needed to hide and stay low, explained where all the traffic cameras were at and where Gavin’s own cameras were set up, and best alleys to head down to in case you needed a quick escape off the main roads. After you marked up the Los Santos map to the point where it was hard to read anything, Trevor handed you a pistol.

“Michael said you weren’t too bad with this. We have a shooting range. Let’s go and test what your skill level is at.” You checked the gun to make sure safety was on and then placed it in the back pocket of your jeans. On the way out of the penthouse you ran into Gavin.

“Oh sorry, love.” He said as soon as he realized who he just stumbled upon. “Oh wait, before you go, I wanted to show you something!” He suddenly announced excitedly. You looked over at Trevor who just shrugged. The two of you followed Gavin into his room.

Gavin’s room looked like a technological hurricane went through it. There were gadgets and cables all around the room. His desk was filled with files, three computers, and two tablets in no particular order. He sat at his chair and started to quickly type away at all three of his computers bringing up files, cameras, and a whole website named The Golden Web.  _ Golden Boy in his natural habitat. _ A page of code came up and Gavin was typing away HTML coding into it. The tech girl in you was intrigued at what he was doing and you were watching Gavin closely.

“You forgot a bracket in the code right here.” You pointed out and Gavin stopped all typing. He looked at it and then at you. He quickly typed in the bracket.

“Thanks, you know code?” He asked.

“I just quit my job at a tech firm this morning, yes I know basic HTML. Graduated with a comp sci major, and have been working in tech for years now. Started coding back in middle school.” you said matter of factly. 

Trevor and Gavin exchanged a look. You weren’t sure what it meant, but you decided to not pry about it. Gavin and you were both looking over the computer code now. You easily followed where he was going with the code and eventually he logged into his personal database. There was much more camera footage of almost every angle of every alley and street you could think of in Los Santos. You stared at all the information in front of you in awe. 

“Gav, this is awesome. How long did it take you to code all of this?” You asked, your eyes not sure what to look at first.

“About two weeks.” Gavin shrugged. You could see a smile in the corner of his mouth. His eyes betrayed that he felt proud of himself. “So, I know I’m not on this assignment, but… Here are the comms. I’ll be keeping a lookout from here. If you need me, contact me. I’ll try to remain as silent as I can to not, you know, interfere. Just so you know, we’ll be watching you on TV in the living room. I’ll try to keep the commentary to the minimum.”

“Thanks Gav.” Trevor said and patted his shoulder. You agreed and took one last look at the surveillance footage and followed Trevor back out of Gavin’s room. You walked past several more people in the crew and waved your goodbye to them. In the elevator you and Trevor went over your plans again and checked your ammo. You got into Trevor’s car and drove out of the city. Suddenly your phone rang and you looked down to see  _ Lindsay _ displayed on your screen. You quietly cursed and picked up the phone, earning a quick glance from Trevor. 

“Hello?”

“Ok, what the fuck?!” Lindsay immediately screamed at you.

“Um, what? What’s up?” You asked, knowing where this was going.

“You quit and didn’t even tell me?! What’s been going on with you lately. You stopped talking to me about where you’ve been hanging out, Miles told me you got a better offer for a mystery company, what the fuck happened to us not keeping secrets from each other?”  _ Shit.  _ You weren’t sure why you thought Lindsay wouldn’t ask you about any of this or wouldn’t care. She was your closest friend at work. The two of you sat across from each other and would often gossip together about one thing or another at work. Telling her about any of this completely slipped your mind.

“Lindsay, listen. I’m sorry. It wasn’t anything about you, I promise.” You reassured her.

“I sure hope it wasn’t, but what’s going on? What’s this new firm you’re in now? Wanna maybe help a girl out and get me in there as well?”

“Linds, it’s not like that. I got invited in, I’m not sure I can get you in here as well. Plus, not sure you’d want to. You have such a solid position where you’re at already.” You tried to sound convincing to the best of your ability. You noticed Trevor giving you sideway glances and you could tell he was making sure that you weren’t going to spill the beans. You weren’t that dumb.

“Y/N, you better have not joined a gang.” Lindsay said in a serious tone and you wondered just how perceptive she could be.

“A gang?! Are you nuts? You know me!” You tried to defend yourself.

“Yeah and I also know how you always manage to find yourself in exactly those types of situations. Plus, let’s face it. We’re in Los Santos, it’s not like that idea is so out there.” You could almost hear the shrug in her voice.

“I’m not in a gang, Lindsay.” You say firmly.

“You are a terrible liar. We’re talking about this more face to face. You’re coming clean to me, whether you like it or not.” And without waiting for a response from you she hung up.

“Shit…” you groan and Trevor looks over at you.

“Who was that?” He sounds genuinely curious.

“Friend from work. Lindsay.” You tell him.

“Is she a threat?” He asks you. His voice, cold. You understood the underlying meaning.  _ Do we have to put her down?  _

“She’s a wildcard, that’s for sure. But no. She is not a thread.” That seemed to have put Trevor at ease and the rest of the car ride was relatively quiet, accompanied by some small talk. Once you were in the outskirts of Los Santos, Trevor pulled into a small lot.

“Ok, let’s go.” He said and got out of the car.

You followed him into a small building that had no signs on it.

“This is the Fakes’ personal shooting range.” Trevor explained as he punched in a code to get into the building. “We have all sorts of artillery here, so we can start with the pistol and if you want to go to something bigger, we can.” 

The adrenaline of getting to shoot a gun was coursing through your blood and you let it guide you. Trevor gave you earmuffs and showed you where the targets were, to stand at. You took out your pistol, took your position in front of the target and took the safety off. You placed your hands the way Michael had shown you and focused on your breathing. As you exhaled and inhaled you watched the sights move up and down slightly. You relaxed and let instinct take control. You placed your target in the center of your sights and let it blur out into the background. Inhale. You focused on your trigger finger, tightening around the trigger. Exhale. You pulled the trigger and fired your gun. Trevor took off his earmuffs and you followed suit.

“Not bad.” Trevor remarked. He pressed a button and the target came closer. “This is your bullet hole. You just barely grazed his neck. Always aim for the head and counter the distance. Here, look.”

He pressed another button and the target was taken away as a new one appeared. You both put the earmuffs back on. He took to the pistol from you and pointed the gun at the target. Without too much deliberation he pulled the trigger three times. He brought the target closer to you, all three shots were headshots.

“Don’t always put the sight right in the middle. Compensate for the bullet drop as the distance increases. That being said, if the target is closer to you, aim it closer to the actual sights. Let’s try a couple more targets.” He pressed some more buttons and four targets came out. Two were way in the back, one in the middle, and one closest to you.

You focused on the ones closer to you first. You shot the one on the left looking straight down the middle of the sights. As you fired you saw a hole appear where the target’s skull would have been. The one on the right was in the middle. You placed the sights slightly higher and fired. The two in the back were the more challenging ones. You shot one way too high at first and had to adjust. The second shot hit the bullseye. Last target remaining. You focused on your breathing, adjusted your sights and fired. Trevor brought the targets closer to you.

“Much better. However, we almost never have stationary targets, so you have to be quicker. Be sure to shoot even if they are moving or if you are. Pretend like the railing is your cover. Shoot from under the cover, alright? I’ll show you first then you do it. We have extended clips on our pistols, so count your bullets. 20 bullets per clip. Carry several more clips with you. 9 bullets have been fired from this one already, we have 11 left. Try to not let any bullet go to waste because that can very much be the bullet between life and death for you or one of the crew members. Ok, step back and observe.” 

You took a step back as Trevor pulled up a new sequence for the targets. He crouched down behind the railing to be in cover. The targets were moving in no particular pattern around the shooting range. Some were moving fast, others were much slower. You counted 8 targets in total. Trevor expertly dove out of cover, shot his targets and dove back down. He did it a couple more times, hitting the targets every time. After he shot the last one you let out a single  _ wow _ . You were sure your jaw hit the ground. Trevor got up and expertly changed the clip for a new one. 

“Your turn.” He gave you a cheeky smile and handed you the pistol. 

The same sequence of targets came up.  _ 8 targets. 20 bullets. _ You took a deep breath and hid under the cover. You peaked from under the cover and saw a target moving close to you at a relatively fast speed. You trained on his head and fired. The bullet went through. You hid back under. Peaked again and trained on a target moving slowly further away. It was moving to the left. You let the sights be a bit higher than his head and a bit to his left. You fired and it struck. You moved to the next target. 

Finally there were only two targets left. One that was further back was at a running speed, serpentining in no distinguishable pattern. Another one was in the middle traveling at a speed of a car back and forth. You focused on the one that was at a car speed. Calculating the speed you approximated the distance and fired to it’s right. Miss. You tried again, this time it was going left. You fired, it struck it’s shoulder. You fired again and finally hit it in the head. You quickly counted in your head your remaining bullets while you were behind the cover. 3 bullets remaining. 3 chances to get the last target. You peaked again from under the cover, trying to figure out a pattern, but there wasn’t one. Finally you decided to simply try and get lucky with the shot. You fired one to the target’s left, but it went right. Miss. You tried again, this time trying to follow its movement and fired. Miss. Last bullet. You noticed your jaw was clenching. You relaxed it slightly. Took a deep breath and closed your eyes. You focused your attention to your body. Felt every inch of it. Felt the pistol like the continuation of your hands. You opened your eyes again and focused on the target. Your finger pulled the trigger and the target swerved right into the trajectory of your bullet. Hit. 

“Nice.” Trevor exclaimed, slowly clapping for you. “That didn’t suck.” 

“You know, I’ll take that.” You said, feeling pretty proud of yourself.

“Good accuracy, gotta work on your speed, but the rest wasn’t bad. Want to try a couple more guns? We have about two more hours before we gotta head out.”

“Sure!”

Trevor walked over to a door and pressed a code combination. The door opened to another door that looked like an entrance to a vault. Trevor unlocked that door as well and you were greeted by a whole armory. There were guns of all shapes and sizes. You put your pistol on safety and put it down. Walking into the armory you looked through the assortment of knives and guns and armor. Trevor handed you an SMG rifle and you followed him back to the target practice. 

After trying out several more guns, you discover that you are surprisingly good with a sniper rifle and a micro SMG. You got slowly used to shotguns and you weren’t too shabby with Assault Rifles either. 

For today’s trial Trevor helped you strap on a pistol to your jeans and hid a micro SMG in your backpack. You wore some light armor in case things went south and finished up the rest of the prep.

“I’m not as good with makeup as Ryan is, but you need to hide your features. Contour your face to the point where it’s unrecognizable.” Trevor said as he pulled out a professional looking kit with makeup and some special effect things.

“So no mask?” You ask as you take the mirror and start applying makeup.

“No, you’re still wearing a mask, but we have to be prepared in case someone snatches your mask. Can’t take no chances.”

“Makes sense.”

The rest of the prep work went by smoothly and the sun went down. You and Trevor walked out the building and Trevor tossed you his car keys. You caught them in midair and looked at him confused.

“Hey this is your robbery, not mine. I’m just here for support.” Trevor shrugged and got in the passenger seat. You got in the driver's seat and started the car. This was, by far, the most expensive car you’ve ever driven. You pulled out of the shooting range and set the GPS to your convenience store location. Once you pulled into the convenience store you looked over at Trevor.

“Should I leave the car here or park in the alley?”

“Well, follow the plan.”  _ So, he’s gonna be of no help at all. _

“Gav, you there?” You asked into your comms.

“Yup. The whole crew is watching you. Matt brought everyone popcorn.” Gavin’s voice whispered into your ear.

“Great… This is a movie to them.” You sighed. Pulling the car into the back alley.

“Don’t get me wrong, but this sounds like a great movie plot.” Gavin chuckled. That brought a smile to your face.  _ Just think of this as a movie, Y/N. You got this. _

Putting the car in park, you don’t kill it. You’ll need it for your escape. You looked over at Trevor and he nods. You both pull out your masks and put them on. Taking one final look in the mirror, Trevor and you squeeze out of the vehicle and walk back around to the front of the store. 

“Let the trials begin.” You tell him and burst into the store, pistol ready in your hands. “Hands where I can see them!” You scream at the clerk behind the counter. Both your and Trevor’s guns are pointing at him.

“Oh shit! Please, don’t shoot! I’ll do anything! Please!” He screamed immediately.

“Shut the fuck up and give us the money.” You demanded, unwavering in your stance. 

“I-I- I have a daughter. Please. Don’t kill me.” The clerk said, still not reaching for the money.

“The more you talk the lesser your chance of seeing her again, now give us the fucking money!” You were getting impatient. After the clerk still hadn’t moved you shot the wall behind him, which caused him to scream. “Are fucking deaf?! Money! Now!”

That got the clerk moving. He opened the register and started piling money into a plastic bag.

“Holy shit! What the hell?” You heard a scream from behind you. 

You turned around to see a young man had walked into the store and saw the whole scene. He was reaching for something in his pocket.  _ A phone or a gun.  _ You didn’t have time to gamble which one it was. You pointed your gun at him and pulled the trigger. His lifeless body hit the floor.

“Oh my god! Oh my god, I’m gonna die! I’m gonna fucking die… Holy shit, you fuckers are nuts! You are full crazy!” You turned your attention back to the clerk. He threw the money at you and his left hand went under the counter.

“Don’t you fucking dare!” But before you could even finish the sentence, the store’s alarm started blaring. “Fuck!” You heard sirens already nearing your location. You looked him straight in the eyes and you could see the realization in them as soon as he figured out how badly he fucked up. You popped him right between the eyes. “Shit, let’s go.” You grabbed the money and ran with Trevor out the back door into the alleyway. “Trevor, you drive.”

He looked at you but he didn’t argue. He slid over the hood of the car and got into the driver’s seat. You got into the passenger seat and the two of you drove out of the alley. You drove into the construction like you planned. You unzipped your backpack and took out your micro SMG. 

“Police cars are waiting for you on the other side, be ready.” Gavin whispered. You looked at Trevor to confirm he heard Gavin. He was looking directly in front of him, occasionally checking his six.

“Copy that.” You responded to Gavin and slid the passenger side’s window down. You propped yourself out of the window, the wind blowing in your face, gluing the mask to your face and making it hard to see. 

The cop cars were lined up to cause a roadblock, but Trevor suddenly took a sharp right and you had to fight to stay in the car. There were two planks set up for trucks to be able to get into the construction zone, but Trevor was not slowing down as he approached them.

“Hold on.” He grunted. You popped back into the car and held on. Trevor hit the planks like a ramp and your car went airborne. You held on tightly, watching the cops pass underneath you. The car hit the pavement hard and you gritted your teeth from the pain of the impact, but recovered quickly. Cops were already following you again. 

You got out of your window again and began firing at the cop cars behind you. They opened fire back at you. The wind was causing your mask to wildly fly around in front of your eyes, constructing your view.

“Fuck this!” you cursed and tore the mask off your face and threw it into the backseat of the car. Your hair was in a ponytail and wasn’t as big of a nuisance as the mask was. You began firing at the cops again and your accuracy has increased dramatically. You shot out the tires of the cop car at the front and it spun out and hit a couple more. However, more and more cop cars kept coming.

“Take the next left and then a sharp right. There should be an alley there, go in there and you should come out next to a metro station. Ditch the car, go there.” Gavin gave directions to Trevor. 

You turned your body around and began firing at the police cars in front of you. Trevor turned again and there were three black SUVs that surrounded you. They weren’t cops. Tinted windows rolled down and machine guns started spraying your armored car with bullets. You were trying to fire back at them, but suddenly your gun clicked and you reached to grab another clip out of your backpack. You stopped paying attention to the mystery men attacking you and one their bullets hit your shoulder. You cried out and fell back into the passenger seat.

“Fuck! Y/N, you ok?” Trevor asked, looking at you, concern clear on his face. He kept glancing between the road and you. “Gavin, what is going on? Who are these assholes?”

Pain soared from your shoulder to the rest of our body. It felt so intense that you couldn’t think straight. Tears didn’t come. You felt paralysed. The up was indistinguishable from the down. Everything was spinning in front of you and you tried to calm down your breathing. Trevor grabbed on to your hand and squeezed tight. He was speaking to you, but his voice sounded far away, words not making sense to your mind. You heard a British accent speaking in your ears, but it sounded too loud to be Gavin. It was piercing through your head, causing a headache. 

The car you were in suddenly swerved to the side and you skidded to the right and hit your shoulder on the door. Fresh pain soared through your body and you cried out. It cleared your mind and you suddenly realized where you were and what you were doing. You sat up straight in your seat to the best of your ability. Your right arm was numb and you couldn’t muster the strength to move it. You looked down at your SMG, half reloaded. You balanced it with your legs and pushed the clip fully in with your left hand. Sweat rolled down your forehead with effort. 

You looked over at Trevor who was still clearly concerned, but he was doing good about evading the cops. He looked at you and caught your eyes. He looked down at your SMG and gave you a questioning look. You nodded, but he immediately shook his head.

“You don’t have the strength for that, you will fall out. Just stay down. We almost lost them.” He pleaded with you.

“I’ll be fine, Trev. Just keep your eyes on the road. Like you said, this is my trial, right?”

“Y/N, you don’t understand! Stand the fuck down. You are losing a lot of blood, just stay down! These aren’t those idiot pigs, these guys know what they’re doing.” Trevor screamed at you and you were taken aback. 

You decided to listen to him and put your SMG on safety. You looked at your right shoulder and saw blood. A lot of blood. It was running down your arm. Your vision was becoming spotty. There were black dots swimming in front of you and you felt very light headed. You pressed your hand to your wound and screamed. The pain was too much. You thought you were going to pass out, but you knew just enough to know you needed to apply pressure to it, or else you would bleed out.

You lost track of time. It would sometimes stretch out and then go by in seconds. You weren’t sure if you were entirely conscious for the rest of the ride, but eventually Trevor slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the drivers’ seat. He ripped open the passenger seat and carefully took you out of it. He supported you and helped you walk to the elevator. Before he could press the button to signal the elevator, the doors opened and Jeremy and Ryan were there to greet the two of you. The last thing you remembered was Jeremy catching you as you lost consciousness. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, you did rob a convenience store... in a way... Who are these guys in black SUVs though and where did they come from? Will you be ok after getting shot? How will the rest of the crew react? What will our beautiful Wildcard Lindsay do to you if she ever found out that you WERE in a gang? Keep on reading and find out! 
> 
> On that note, thank you so so much for reading another chapter! I love this story and these characters so much! Let me know what you think and comment any suggestions you have for the rest of the series! <3 Love you all ~ Aya!


	7. More Trouble Than We Bargained For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You are in the infirmary and the crew is breaking down.
> 
> Half the chapter is in Jeremy's POV!

~~~~

I caught you as you collapsed into my arms. Trevor tried holding you up, but you lost consciousness and were becoming too heavy for his tired body. Ryan took you from Trevor’s arms and told him to rest. The four of us made it up the elevator and Ryan and I rushed you into the penthouse infirmary where Geoff and Jack already set up an operating table. I set you down carefully on it with the help from the other three men.

“Trevor, sit down right there, we have to make sure you’re alright too.” Jack told him.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m good.” Trevor protested.

“Shut the fuck up and sit. Jeremy, Ryan, thank you for the help. Please leave.” Geoff said strictly as he assisted his wife.

“I’m not leaving her.” I protested. All I could focus on was how much blood you were losing. There was so much blood. My knees felt weak and I could feel my body tremble.

“Come on Rimmy.” Ryan put his hand on my shoulder, but I couldn’t move. My eyes were glued to you. “Jeremy, you did all you could, there’s not much else we can do right, but wait. Come on.” 

Finally I allowed Ryan to guide me out of the room. I looked down at my hands that were covered in blood. Your blood. I couldn’t take it anymore and my legs gave out under me. I landed hard on my knees and continued staring at my bloody hands.

“Jeremy. Jeremy! Snap out of it man. You gotta be strong. If not for yourself, you gotta be strong for her. Come on, you’re stronger than this. She needs you to keep it together right now. Please. Do that for her.” I looked up at Ryan who was kneeling next to me. My eyes were stinging with tears that were now flowing freely down my face. I let him pull me back up to my feet and guide me to the restroom. I didn’t resist when he helped me wash my hands off of your blood and I walked with him back to the living room. Trevor was sitting there with the rest of the crew telling them what happened. When he saw me, he immediately got up. I could see the panic in his eyes.

“Jeremy, I’m so sorry. I failed. I didn’t protect her. I’m so sorry. This was all my fault. I’m so sorry.” He began apologizing rapidly, but I just put my hand up to silence him.

“We all know that it wasn’t you. They found her.”

“How the fuck did they find her so quickly?” Michael asked. I shrugged, because I truly didn’t know. I thought keeping you with the crew would keep you safe, but it seemed like they had found you faster. Maybe I made the wrong call… 

“How did they know that you were going to rob that convenience store? Like that has been decided just a couple hours ago, they couldn’t possibly have that information.” Matt brought up, looking at Trevor. Trevor shook his head. No one in the room knew the answer. 

Ryan and I glanced at each other. I mentioned for him to come to the side. We walked away from the group and when we were sure they were out of earshot I turned around to Ry. 

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I ask him.

“I think so. We might have a mole.” He confirms my fear.

“Shit. Who could it be?” I looked back at the crew, all sitting on the couch and talking. The tension in the room could be easily cut with a knife.

“No idea, but all I know is that the two of us can trust each other. Aside from that, I’m currently not trusting of anyone else.” Ryan tells me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “Jeremy, I promise you, I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect her. I know you will do the same.” I nodded and hugged Ryan. He has always been the closest of my friends within the crew. Of course, there were the lads, but Ryan was my Battle Buddy. I trusted him with my entire life. Then again, I used to trust everyone in the crew the same way.

The two of us walked back to the rest of the Fakes and sat down on the couch. We remained there in tense silence as we waited. Several hours passed before we received any news from Jack and Geoff. Jack walked out first looking solemn and tired, followed by the similar looking Geoff. I immediately jumped up, anxious for what they had to say.

“She’s stable. She’s not awake yet, but she’s stable. The bullet passed through cleanly, but it was drenched in poison. This was a targeted attack.” Jack said and I felt all color drain from my face. Ryan’s hand was already on my shoulder, keeping me rooted in place.

“Poison?” Trevor asked.

“We gave her an anecdote, but her body is still fighting. The poison has already made it into her bloodstream, but she’s strong. She’ll get through this. Like Jack said, she’s stable now. It might take a little bit before she wakes up though.” Geoff explained further. “Get some rest, guys. If there’s change in her condition, we’ll let you know.” As he said that, he made eye contact with me. He came over to me and whispered in my ear. “You can visit her if you need.”

That was all the confirmation that I needed as I bounced up to my feet and ran into the infirmary. You laid there motionless, but breathing. You were breathing. I wanted to hug you, to hold you, to be able to do something to make you feel better. Your shirt was ripped and a bandage was wrapped around your shoulder tightly. You could see a slight sign of green veins popping out from under the bandage, but other than that you looked normal. Like you were sleeping. I noticed you had some sweat beads on your forehead, so I checked to see if you were running a fever. You were. I looked around the room and saw a chair in the corner. I brought it over and sat next to your side.

~~~~

I sat by your bed in the penthouse infirmary for days now. It must have been days, but I lost track of time. You were still yet to wake up. I barely slept, barely ate, all my thoughts were consumed by immense guilt. If I hadn’t invited you to join the crew, you wouldn’t have a bullet hole in your shoulder. You wouldn’t have been poisoned. For the hundredth time I felt tears spill down my cheek and at this point I let them. I didn’t wipe them away angrily anymore. I heard the door open up behind me, but I didn’t turn around to glance at who it was. I felt an arm on my shoulder and another chair being pulled up next to me.

“It’s been three days. You should go to sleep. I can look after her while you do. At least take a quick nap.” Ryan said, trying to catch my eye.

“I’m not tired.” I replied. I knew fighting with Ryan on this got me nowhere, but I was too stubborn to leave your side. I needed to be here.

“Bullshit. When was the last time you ate?” Ryan pressed further.

“I’m not hungry.”

“Jeremy… Rimmy, look. Do you remember how I was when Ray left?” Ryan began. I knew where this was going.

“This is completely different, Ryan.”

“I know that. I know. But, do you remember what I did?” When I didn’t answer, he continued. “I was in my room for days. I haven’t eaten, I haven’t slept, I locked myself in there and didn’t let any of you guys in. I completely isolated myself and forgot that I had friends. People that I could get through it with. All I thought about was that the R&R connection was broken. And yet, you were the one who got me out of that state. You may have kicked my door in and almost hit me with it, but… you got me out of that state. I probably owe you my life for that…” He let that hang between us. 

I already knew this story. That had nothing to do with this. Ray left, you almost died. This wasn’t the same. Yes, Ryan may have felt like he lost his best friend. And yes, Ryan wasn’t entirely sure if Ray was alive or dead for the first several days before we heard from Ray, but this was still not the same. Ok, maybe it was a little bit, but…  _ Ugh. I don’t even know anymore. _

“This is all because of me, V.” I told him. Finally looking him in the eyes. I let all my pain show. Ryan was one of the only people I could feel this vulnerable with. 

“You know that’s not true, Jere. You did everything you could to protect her-”

“And that was obviously not enough!” I told him. Because it wasn’t. If it was, this situation would have never happened.

“Jeremy, please. Just go sleep. I can make you something for a quick snack. Just please, rest.” Ryan said so genuinely that after a minute of elaboration, I finally gave up.

“Fine. I’ll go rest, but I’m not hungry. Promise me that you won’t leave her side?”

“Of course. She’s in good hands, J.” 

“Thank you.” And with that I got up and gave you one last look. I walked back to my room and collapsed on my bed. Sleep overtook me immediately.

~~~~

You opened your eyes and noticed a bright light above you. You were in a white room. The ceiling was white and the four surrounding walls were white. You tried to sit up, but felt pain in your right side. 

“Hey, hey, hey! Easy there.” You looked over to see the piercing blue eyes of Ryan staring at you. You felt light headed and collapsed back into your bed.

“Whe-” you had to clear your throat, “Where am I?” Talking felt hard, like you haven’t done it in a while. You tried to remember what happened. Why did everything feel so dull?

“You were shot. You’re in the infirmary now. We’re in the penthouse, don’t worry.” Ryan looked you over worriedly. He then came over closer to you and pressed something above your head. You couldn’t see what it was. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired. My shoulder is aching.” You tried to assess if there was anything else. Before you got far in your thoughts, doors slammed open and Jeremy ran inside.

“Y/N! You’re awake! Oh thank God. How are you?” He looked on the verge of tears and overall very tired.

“How long was I out for?” You asked, trying again to sit up. Jeremy helped you.

“Over a week.” Jack answered as she walked into the room, followed by Geoff. “We need to check her vitals. You can stay in the room, but please stay off to the side.” Jack said, looking at Jeremy and Ryan.

“Over a week?” You asked, shocked.

“You were shot. The bullet had poison on it. Someone has targeted you. You’re lucky to be alive, to be honest.” Geoff explained to you.  _ Poisoned? Targeted? _

“Who would want to target me?” You asked, looking back and forth between Jack and Geoff as they were performing a series of tests on your body and checking your vitals on the screens. 

“Wish we could tell you. We’ve been working non stop trying to track anything down about the guys who attacked you and Trevor. It could have been Trevor who was targeted, not you. You might have just gotten in the way, but we aren’t sure yet.” Geoff continued.

“Those two were no help though. Jeremy hasn’t left your bedside, unless Ryan took over and let the other men sleep.” Jack mentioned to the two men standing in the corner of the room, watching you intently. “Then again, more people would have probably done the same, but Jeremy didn’t let anyone else in.”

“Okay, well it looks like you are stable. You should be good in several more days, maybe a week. Your shoulder is healing well, but we don’t want the stitches to get torn. Poison is slowing down the healing process, but not by much. You should be back on your feet in no time.” Geoff assured you. You thanked both him and Jack, and they left the room. Jeremy and Ryan came back up to you.

“So… over a week, huh?” You tried breaking the ice.

“Yeah…” Ryan said. Awkward silence fell between the three of you. None of you knowing what to say. Eventually, Jeremy broke the silence. You saw tears falling down his cheeks. You tried to reach up and wipe them away, but any movement caused you increased pain, so you just tried to tell him that it was ok.

“It’s not ok, Y/N. I’m so sorry, this is all my fault.” Jeremy said. Unsure why, but his words made you angry at him.

“Your fault?  _ Your  _ fault?! Jeremy, I chose this lifestyle for myself. You might have invited me, but I’m a big girl. I could have said no. I knew what I was getting myself into.” You tell him firmly. He closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened them back up, he looked at Ryan, who put his hand on Jeremy’s shoulder and nodded. 

“Y/N, there’s something that I’ve kept a secret from you.” Jeremy said, still looking at Ryan. Finally he looked you in the eyes. “There is someone after you. That’s why I asked you to join the Fake AH Crew so suddenly. To protect you. Awesome job I did there.” He added solemnly. You pondered upon his words for a second.  _ There’s someone after me…  _

“Who are they?” You asked. Looking between Jeremy and Ryan. After some deliberation, Jeremy sighed.

“They are a gang. A big one. They are close to us, slightly less powerful, but still very dangerous. Their name is The Roosters.”

“Shit.” You swear. Your fears have come true.

“Wait, you know them.” Ryan said. It wasn’t a question, more of a statement. It was your time to sigh. 

“Yeah… Sadly, I do know them.” Jeremy and Ryan exchanged glances, not sure how to take this information.

“Y/N, what have you been keeping from me?” Jeremy asked, his tone serious.

“You might want to sit down. This is a long story.” You told them. 

~~~~ 6 months prior to meeting the Fakes ~~~~

You were working at your desk, it was a typical Friday. Lindsay was finishing up stylizing a website she was tasked with building. You were almost done with your code that Miles assigned you last week. There were papers with vector calculations all around you and you were trying to find the right one.  _ Gosh, I need to clean my desk. _

The day was almost over, only 30 more minutes till it was the weekend. Lindsay finished up and was looking over what you were doing.

“You know, coding is a lot faster when you comment in your sections.” She chimed in. “Half your code makes no sense to anyone, but you.” 

“I know, but commenting takes forever, so no, it won’t be faster.” you snapped back at her.

“Well, for one, I would be able to help you. As well as, you’d actually be able to understand which part of your code is for which part.”

“Thank you Lindsay, I know how to code.” You gritted your teeth, getting annoyed by your friend.

“I’m not saying that you don’t know how to code, just giving you pointers, you know? Observing.” 

You were about to argue some more, when Miles walked into your office.

“Sup girls, how’s it going?” He waved at you and Lindsay.

“Nothing much, just trying to code, while  _ someone  _ is making my life difficult.” You smile innocently.

“Wow, if  _ I _ am making  _ your  _ life difficult, how do you even survive in Los Santos?” Lindsay laughed and went back to her desk. 

“Y/N, can I talk to you in my office?” Miles asks and you immediately say sure. As the two of you were walking away, Lindsay gave you a thumbs up and a wink. You rolled your eyes.

Once you were in Miles’ office, he closed the door behind you and locked it.

“Y/N, you are a great coder and a dedicated worker. I need you to do something for me.” Miles announced immediately. He motioned for you to sit at the opposite side of his desk.

“Can do, sir.” You said, changing your attitude immediately to business talk. 

“Perfect, but you need to keep this on the down low for me. No one in the firm can know you’re working on this. Not even Lindsay, do you understand?” He looked at you seriously.

“Of course. I can keep my mouth shut, Miles.” You told him, maintaining eye contact to show him you weren’t fucking around. 

“So here’s the deal.” Miles said and pulled out a classified folder with papers inside. “There is a company that we think might be a front for a criminal operation. We need you to hack them.” You looked up at Miles as you were going through the files. 

“You want me to hack into ScrewAttack? What for?” You asked, unsure where Miles was taking this.

“We believe they have some important information that our CEO wants. Hack into their system and retrieve as much information as you can. Try to do it discreetly, we don’t want you to be in danger.” He explained. That had seemed easy enough to you. Break through their firewall and download their files.

“Alright, can do. What sort of important information is this?” You asked. Miles squinted his eyes at you.

“Sorry, that’s classified. I gave you as much information as I could.” You nodded. Took the file and said your goodbyes. 

As you walked back to your desk, you noticed that Lindsay was still there, although it has been past work hours.

“Y/N! So, how was the sex?” She asked immediately, quite loudly. 

“We didn’t have sex, Linds.” You tell her and make a beeline to your desk, hoping she doesn’t notice the file.

“Alright, then what was that about.” She asks.

“Just a progress report on my code.” You lie to her.

“What’s the folder?” She presses.

“Pointers for my code.” You tell her and stuff the folder quickly into your backpack, hoping she didn’t see anything written on it. 

“Alright…” She said, but you could tell she was still not convinced. “Let’s head to a bar! It’s friday night, girls night out! I can call up Kdin, Alanah, and Jackie?”

“Sorry Linds, I’m tired and I still have a lot of work with the code.” You tell her, yawing to sound more convincing.

“Right. The code.” Lindsay nods, “Well, maybe next time.”

“Yeah, next time.”

Once you were back in your apartment you sat at the kitchen table and spread all the papers in front of yourself. There was a lot of information about ScrewAttack and how Miles and Matt believe that they are a front for the Roosters. The possible connections between the two and information of some of their team members. But there was nothing on what type of information you were retrieving or how it can benefit your firm at all. With a sigh you opened your computer and began searching up your own information on them, but there wasn’t much that you found that the file didn’t already have.

You opened your software and began typing away. You were breaking through several layers of their firewall easily. However, then you ran into a problem. There was a protection system that was way more advanced for a small firm like ScrewAttack to have. You pressed harder, typing away like crazy. After about an hour of going back and forth with this, you finally manage to get through. You exhale in relief and look through the information you found. You plug in your flash drive and transfer everything on there. You will for it to move faster, not desiring to let them track you. Once the download finished, you plugged in your other flash drive and installed a virus in their system. That should prevent them from tracing your steps.

Once you were done, you logged out and texted Miles.  _ Done. _ He sent you an address and a time. As well as directions to recognize the person.

The next day you met up at the designated location and waited around. You weren’t sure who you were supposed to give this information to. Finally you noticed a tall figure come towards you. You stood your case, waiting for him to come closer.

“Y/N?” He asked. You nodded.

“And you?”

“Joel.” He replied. “You have something for me?”

“I do, I have a note.” You followed the script you were given.

“Is it on a sticky note?” 

“A green one, nonetheless.” Both you and Joel relaxed as you passed the test. You gave him the flash drive and he smiled as he quickly put it away in his pocket. “What do I do with the files?”

“Burn them. No one can know you were on this case. Have a great day.” Joel said and immediately started walking back from where he came from.

~~~~

“And so I did as I was told. I came home, burned the files, and never talked about this to anyone again. I thought I was in the clear, I mean, this was seven months ago. But I guess I took a misstep somewhere. I never found out what was on those files, but it looks like it was worth enough for them to want to kill me for it.” You finished your story and looked up at Jeremy and Ryan.

“We need to call in a meeting. Now.” Ryan announced and started walking out the door.

“Rest, Y/N. I'll tell Jack to up your painkillers. We’ll figure this whole mess out. Don't worry.” Jeremy said and you were left alone in the infirmary, contemplating on the actions you took to get yourself here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts on Jeremy's POV? Also, backstory! Yay! The story is coming along! What do you guys think so far? Hope you are enjoying the story! <3


	8. We Will Get To The Bottom Of This - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to split up and cover all of our bases. Everyone know what they're doing? Great, let's go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BIG WARNING: smut coming in this chapter... (kind of?)

~~~~

“Nobody messes with one of ours.” Geoff said, face serious. The whole crew aside from Y/N were in the conference room. Ryan and I just finished telling everyone what you have told us and Geoff already had a plan ready. “Gavin, I need you to pull  _ everything  _ that you can on ScrewAttack. Get everything that Y/N gave to Matt Hulum, we need to know what is so important there that the Roosters would want to murder for. Alfredo, set up security around Miles and Matt. We need to make sure the Roosters aren’t going after them as well. Go to rooftops, set up. Report anything suspicious that you might see. Michael, find out if this Lindsay chick might have seen or heard anything. She still works there, get her to talk. Don’t hesitate, use whatever technique you have to, but don’t tip her off on Y/N. We don’t need her knowing. Fiona, Matt, Trevor. The three of you, scope the streets, see if anyone knows anything. Ryan, track down this Joel fellow, see what he has to say. After you’re done with him, interrogate Miles and Matt. We want to keep them safe, but we need to know why they had Y/N do this work in the first place. Jack and I will provide aerial support where needed. We’re on the comms the entire time. Jeremy.” Geoff finally got to me. I looked up at him, ready to knock some people’s skulls in for this. “We need someone to stay behind and look after Y/N. Do you mind?”

“I don’t mind staying with Y/N, but Geoff. I need to be out there too. I can be useful. Assign me something. I can assist. I can help get information.” I pleaded. As much as I didn’t want to leave your side, I also needed to know that I wasn’t dead weight for everybody. 

“You can assist her. Help her recuperate. She needs her best friend right now more than she needs her crew.” Geoff looked at me and an understanding passed between us. I sighed and agreed to the task. “One more thing, actually.” Geoff said and I could see him thinking. “While you’ll be here, here’s something you can work on more. Figure out what that poison was. Jack and I retrieved some samples. Run it through the lab, we need to know what we’re dealing with here.” 

“Will do.” I agreed immediately. That sounded more like an actual job. Now, I could hang out with you as well as be useful.

“Alright, everybody has their tasks, let's figure this out and catch those fuckers!” Geoff announced and a cheer went through the room. Everybody split into their respective groups, determination clear on their faces. “Jack, go ahead and give Y/N some morphine to cope with the pain.” Geoff whispered to Jack who immediately rushed out of the room. 

I saw Ryan come over to me while I brooded over the conference room table. 

“Will get this son of a bitch, Jeremy. You know us. One thing we do well is revenge.”

~~~~

Jeremy

I walked into your infirmary, Jack was pressing numbers on a monitor screen next to you and you were out cold. Jack noticed me walk in and smiled, going back to what she was doing earlier.

“I gave her some more morphine, she should be awake soon enough. Everything in my lab is free for you to use. You know what you’re doing but if you need help, I’m just a call away.”

“Thanks, Jack.” I say and she comes over to me and puts her hand on my shoulder.

“Anytime, J. And for what it’s worth, I’m so sorry. I know what it’s like to see a friend support and I do not wish that upon anyone.” I nodded, remembering the time that Geoff got hurt. Badly. That was during a heist… 3 years ago? I think so.

Jack left and I was alone with a sleeping form of you. I looked at you for a second. You looked so peaceful, I slightly didn’t want you to wake up. I walked over to the lab equipment and started to set up. There was a sample of your blood already sitting in the shelf, so I began testing for all the common toxins, but something was telling me that this would not be anything normal. I ran the tests anyway. 

Trying to think of less common poisons that this could be, I test your blood for arsenic and cyanide. As I set up the test tubes, I hear a shift behind me.

“What are you doing?” You ask me, your eyes a bit glassy.

“I’m testing. Trying to figure what kind of poison they used on you.” I answer honestly. 

“What’s that?” you asked, pointing at the tubes in front of me.

“This is how I detect if you have Arsenic in your body?” I looked back and saw you were looking at me very confused. “Uhh… Let’s see if I can explain this more…” I looked at the contraption in front of me.  _ Where is Jack when you need her?  _ “So, I put Zinc into this end of the test tube and I add acid in right here.” I explain as I do each of the steps. “This produces hydrogen gas. Now if I take your blood and put it on this clothes rag, I light it on fire and put a piece of glass over it. Now, if you had arsenic in your blood a brown spot would appear which would mean that arsine was produced.” I removed the glass to look at it. No brown spots. “Well, looks like arsenic is a no.” 

“Mhmm.” You mumble and I turn around to see you stare down at your arms.

“Y/N, I’m sorry, is this too much? I didn’t mean to upset you.” I rushed over to your side, but that’s when I noticed that you weren’t sad, just… absent. “Y/N?” 

“Hmm?” You looked up at me like you haven’t noticed me before. “Oh, hi Jere-bear!” You suddenly smiled.

“Jere-bear?” I laughed. This must be the Morphine acting up. “Get some rest, Y/N. I’ll be over here.”

“Bye bye, Jere-bear.” You laughed and zoned out again.

I kissed your forehead and got back to work. Arsenic is a no, let’s test for cyanide. 

~~~~

Michael

Setting up a rendezvou place was quite easy, after Michael managed to get the phone number from Gavin. He was waiting around outside of a coffee shop for Lindsay to arrive. At first he was annoyed getting stuck interrogating some girl, but after Gavin showed him a photo of her, he didn’t mind as much. Michael was almost 20 minutes early, making sure that there was no one around the coffee shop area who could be a threat, but the coast seemed clear. He only had to wait for 5 minutes before he saw her show up.

“Lindsay?” He asked, smiling warmly.

“Yes! Hi, Michael, right?” She mirrored his smile.  _ Wow she’s pretty. Get yourself together Michael, you’re here on a mission. _

“Yes! Would you like to grab some coffee and discuss the offer I made you?”

“I would love to!” Lindsay answered and they walked towards the coffee shop.

It was nice and quaint. The inside wasn’t too crowded and people sat around and chatted. Michael saw some teens on their computers, typing away. Businessmen sat around, talking and looking over some papers. There were two women chatting on a couch. An obvious couple sipping coffee and holding hands on the table. Some loners were scattered around, some on their phones, some reading a book. The line in front of Michael and Lindsay wasn’t too long and they waited in a comfortable silence. Once they got closer to ordering, Michael whispered to Lindsay.

“I’m paying, so don’t hesitate to get whatever you want.”

“Why how chivalrous of you.” She replied and gave Michael a slight smirk.

Finally, it was their turn to order.

“Hello, welcome! What can I get started for you today?” The man behind the counter asked, smiling warmly at them.

“Ladies first.” Michael motioned for Lindsay to order.

“Why thank you. I would like a caramel latte please and a chocolate croissant.”

“What size would you like your latte? And would you like it hot or iced?”

“Medium and hot please.” Lindsay winked at Michael at which he just smiled.  
“And for you, sir?”

“Large iced cappuccino with a chocolate chip cookie. Thank you.”

After Michael paid and they got their drinks, they sat down at one of the booths and sipped their coffee.

“Mm, this is good!” Lindsay exclaimed. Michael took a sip of his own coffee and almost moaned out loud. The coffee sure tasted amazing. “So, your proposition?”

“Yes, right!” Michael suddenly remembered what he was doing there in the first place. “So, my company noticed the work that you do and we were curious to see whether you were interested in transferring. We have a great computer lab with the best, latest technological advances and an amazing salary. Our facilities have a friendly work environment with a very friendly staff.” Michael tried his best to sound professional as he repeated the speech that Gavin tried teaching him. 

“So this  _ amazing  _ salary that we’re talking about… What are we looking like here?” Lindsay asked.  _ Going straight for the money, my type of girl.  _

“We will double whatever you’re getting right now.” Michael said confidently.

“And if I lie how much I am currently making?” Lindsay challenged, leaning closer to Michael.

“A phone call to your boss will determine that.” Michael said, deciding to play her game.

“So, what’s the name of this… magical company that you are describing.”  _ Bingo. _

“We’re called ScrewAttack.” Michael says. He noticed a slight hesitation come from Lindsay, but she recovered instantly.  _ Ah, so you do know something.  _

“Hmm, never heard of them.” She says innocently.

“That’s too bad. We’re a pretty big company.” Michael says, mimicking her innocent tone. Then, an idea popped into his head. “So, this might sound very forward and unprofessional, but would you like to go out sometime?”

Lindsay froze, completely taken aback. Then relaxed and smiled. “Absolutely, what are you doing after this meeting with me?”

“Absolutely nothing.” Michael answered.

“Well, in that case, follow me.” She said and began to stand up.

“Where are we going?” Michael asked, a bit confused by the turn of events and put his guard back up.

“To my car.” Was the only answer Lindsay gave before she began to walk away. Michael downed the rest of his coffee and quickly followed her.

Once they were in her car, Michael tried asking a couple more times for at least a hint on where they were going, but Lindsay wouldn’t give. He quickly sent a text to Gavin, describing a quick summary of what happened and shared his location with him. Within seconds his phone lit up with  _ stay safe ;).  _

Rolling his eyes, Michael put his phone away and looked back at the street they were on. Without meaning to, he was memorizing each turn they made.  _ Right, drive down 1.3 miles, left, drive for 4 miles. _ Eventually, after several more turns, they pulled into an apartment building garage. 

“Um, are you taking me home?” Michael asked, uncertain of where this was going.

“Is that a bit much for a first date? I hope you don’t pussy out of a challenge.” Lindsay replied with a smirk.  _ This is definitely my kind of girl. _

“Of course not, lead the way!” Michael smirked back at her. 

They got out of the car and into an elevator; however, before the elevator doors were even close to being closed, Michael turned around and pinned Lindsay to the elevator door. He looked at her to make sure she didn’t pull away, but she just looked him straight in the eyes and smiled. Michael smiled back and slammed their lips together. It was sloppy, it was hungry, but it was passionate. When Michael pulled back, they both had to take a second to breathe, just looking at each other. After another second, they realized that they forgot to press the floor button. Laughing, Lindsay pulled away and pressed the corresponding number.  _ 5. _

The rest of the elevator ride was quite civil and quiet, the small box felt like electricity sparks could fly at any point. As soon as the elevator door opened, Lindsay grabbed Michael’s hand and dragged him towards her door. She opened her door, without unlocking it.  _ Interesting.  _ The two of them walked through the door and Michael got pushed against the door with more forth than he thought Lindsay could expel. The door slammed shut with his back against it and Lindsay was suddenly occupying every inch of his body. They kissed again, just as desperately clinging on to each other as earlier. 

Michael bit Lindsay’s lower lip drawing out a sweet moan. He groaned against her, pushing his hips up towards her. His hands moved up her side and he pulled her closer to him by her hips. Michael’s hands ghosted just under her shirt, asking for a silent permission. Lindsay gripped on to his hands and moved them up closer to her breasts, under her shirt. Michael took this as all the permission that he needed and he dove fully in. 

After a couple more minutes of their intense making out sessions, Michael picked Lindsay up and walked further into her apartment. 

“Um… Which way?” He breathed out between kisses. Lindsay pointed in a general direction of a room and Michael carried her there. 

Inside the room, Michael saw a bed and he practically threw Lindsay on it, climbing up after her. 

\- To be continued - 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh I'm so sorry that this took so long, but that's because i had to do so much research that I think my FBI guy now thinks that i’m about to poison someone. Also, I have to ask, do you guys mind smut? I can go about Michael/Lindsay in one of two ways, so let me know in the comments if you would like to see the full version of it or the abbreviated. I can also post both and y'all can go to the chapter you feel most comfortable with? Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed! Jere-bear made it in! Love you all <3 ~ Aya


	9. We Will Get To The Bottom Of This - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody has their task, but will they get all the answers fast enough? Do you even realize just how deep in this you are?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so so sorry that this took me so long to write! Holidays happened and overall just have been insanely busy, but it's finally here!

Alfredo

“I got eyes on Miles, don’t see Matt yet.” Alfredo spoke into his comm. 

“Roger that, I’m approaching Joel right now. Will be in touch shortly.” Alfredo heard Ryan say in his ear. 

Alfredo was sitting on the rooftop opposite of the technology firm where you worked. He looked through the scope of his sniper rifle at Miles who was in his office, typing on his computer while talking on the phone. Alfredo zoomed out and looked around the firm some more. People who were working on the same floor as Miles were all around the same age as you were and in casual clothes. There were rows on desks, everybody typing away at their computers, only a few conversing with each other.

Bringing his attention back to Miles, Alfredo couldn’t figure out why, out of all these people, they chose you to do this job. Of all these people, they had to choose the one person who was best friends with a member of the Fake AH Crew. What were the chances of that? Unless… Unless they knew that you were friends with Rimmy… Unless this was a setup… But for whom? For you? For Rimmy Tim? For all of them? The whole crew?

Shifting his attention back to the scene in front of him, Alfredo saw Miles get up from his table and walk over to his wall of windows. Alfredo zoomed in closer and saw Miles pinch his nose as he was saying something into his phone, clearly agitated. Jeremy told them that you always spoke very highly of Miles to him and have always said that he was one of the nicest people she knew. Seeing him like this seemed out of character to Alfredo. For the hundredth time since he got up on this roof, Alfredo wished he could hear inside the building.

He watched as Miles punched the window in front of him with his left hand and then shouted something into his phone and hung up. He leaned his head against the window and stayed like that for several minutes, clearly collecting himself back up. Alfredo looked at his watch and made a quick mental note of the time.  _ Gonna have Gavin check the security shootage later.  _

“Don’t move. Don’t speak. Don’t raise any alarms. And don’t do anything stupid.” A male voice said calmly behind Alfredo.  _ Shit.  _ He felt a pistol against the back of his head. “You move a muscle, you’re dead. Understand?” After Alfredo didn’t answer, the gun pressed against him harder. “Am I making myself clear to you?”

“Crystal.” Alfredo gritted his teeth.  _ Fucking idiot. How did I not hear him?  _

“Good. Now, don’t resist and I’ll be nice to you. Make a move and you can bid your crew an adieu.” The pistol was lifted from his head and hands grabbed his arms and moved them behind him.  _ They know I’m part of a crew, but do they know which one? _

As soon as the man behind Alfredo grabbed his right arm, he jumped up to his feet and twisted, grabbed the guy by his arm and brought him over his shoulder. He tried to kick his pistol away from him, but the guy was faster than Alfredo gave him credit. He brought his legs around and sweeped Alfredo’s legs from under him. Alfredo fell on his back, hard. His head hit the cemented room and black spots swam in front of him. He tried getting up, but a foot stepped on his chest.

“So the bad way it is.” Said the man above him. 

Alfredo reached for his comm and quickly turned it on, “Hel-!”

Before Alfredo could finish a sentence, the man brought his right hand down that was holding his pistol and hit Alfredo in the head. Everything went black. 

~~~~

Fiona/Trevor/Matt

Trevor was driving one of his  _ civilian  _ vehicles. A small grey minivan that was as inconspicuous and normal as he dared make it. He still had it fully armored and the inside was made from a nice black leather, but the rest of the vehicle was the original. Everything the same as when he first stole it. Matt and Fiona were sitting in the back like two kids on their way to school. They were constantly bickering and fighting, reminding Trevor of his two younger sisters. He hasn’t seen them ever since he ran away from home and started his life of crime, but he has fond memories of them.

“Children, settle down. We’re here.” Trevor told Matt and Fiona as he put the car in park. The three of them climbed out of the vehicle and looked around. They were in front of some warehouses next to the docks. A plane flew low over their heads, headed for the airport that was right nearby.

“Oh good, you’re here!” A voice caused everyone to turn towards the source. Out of the shadows came a figure. It was a man, pretty toned, he had curly pink hair sit comfortably on his head and a bushy mustache. He was wearing black ripped jeans and a black shirt that read  _ People Like People _ .

“Sup Jon?” Fiona said, nodding her head at him. 

“Doing good, how are you guys?” Jon answered, coming closer to the three of them. He fist bumped with Matt and smiled and waved at Trevor and Fiona.

“You’ve got anything for us?” Trevor asked, getting straight to the business.

“Yes actually! Something very…  _ interesting  _ is going around the streets right now. Someone has attacked the Roosters.” Trevor exchanged a glance with the other two.

“Go on.” Trevor turned his comm on for Geoff and Jack to hear this.

“Last night, someone raided one of the Roosters’ warehouses. Killed everyone inside. Professionals. If I didn’t get a call from you to see if I heard anything, I would have thought it was you guys. They were not messing around too. They knew when to hit. There was a job going down right as the attack happened. Roosters are trying to keep this on the down low as much as possible, but rumors only grow. If it really wasn’t you guys, you might want to be careful. The rumors are that it was Vagabonds handy work.”

“Copy cat?” Matt asked, looking over at Trevor.

“Possible. Not the first time we had to deal with those. Thanks Jon, we’ll let others know. Anything else?” Trevor looked at their informant.

“Yeah, one more thing. More rumors and I don’t know much on this, but the word on the street is that there’s a newbie.” Trevor immediately perked up to hear this.

“A newbie?” Fiona asked.

Jon nodded before continuing, “several days ago someone robbed a convenience store. You know, no big deal. Happens in Los Santos, but they were with someone else. The witnesses said the other person didn’t do much till the cops showed up. What does that sound like to you, cause to me that sure sounds like initiation. If one of the bigger gangs got a newbie, gotta be careful. We might not know everybody’s numbers now.” Trevor nodded, keeping his face neutral.  _ Witnesses? We killed everybody.  _ “Well, if I hear anything more, I know how to contact you.”

“Thanks Jon.” Fiona said. Trevor put his hand on Jon’s shoulder and maintained eye contact with him. Jon put his hand on top of Trevor’s and nodded. A silent understanding passed between the two. A promise to stay safe.

Trevor, Matt, and Fiona all said their goodbyes to Jon and watched him disappear back into shadows as they piled back into the car.

“Got that Geoff?” Trevor asked into his comm.

“Got it, Treh.” Geoff replied back coldly. 

As Trevor turned his comm off and sped back towards the penthouse, a black luxor flew overhead.

~~~~

Ryan

Ryan sped towards the destination point on his Shotaro. He was thinking back to his conversation with Jeremy before he left the warehouse.  _ I promised him I would protect her.  _ Parking his bike under a bridge, Ryan walked over to his rendezvou spot and checked the time. He was still 15 minutes early, so he took his time checking the place for all the possible escape routes and ambush possibilities.

Ryan walked back to where he was supposed to be meeting Joel and readjusted his Vagabond mask. Checking the time again, Joel was 7 minutes late. Ryan wasn’t a very patient person in the best of moods, he was especially losing patience currently. Finally he saw a figure leisurely stroll over to him.

“I got eyes on Miles, don’t see Matt yet.” Alfredo said over his comm and he turned his on too.

“Roger that, I’m approaching Joel right now. Will be in touch shortly.” Ryan answered as he started walking towards the figure in front of him, turning his comm off.

“Well, well, well… If this isn’t  _ the  _ Vagabond! To what do I owe such an honor to be asked to meet with you? If you wanted to murder me, surely you know where I live.” Joel said with a smug smirk on his face.  _ Oh, I am getting rid of that soon enough. _

“You have information. I need it. Either tell me or I get my hands dirty.” Ryan said, slipping into his Vagabond persona.

“Wow! I’ve honestly dreamed of meeting you, you know. Of getting to be questioned by you. This is like a dream come true!” Joel said excitedly, eyeing the Vagabond up and down.

“Shut up. You met with someone here about 7 months ago. They gave you information. What was it and who was that for?” Ryan’s patience was running very thin and his hands were itching. He took a deep breath and got himself under control.  _ Why was this guy getting to me like this?  _

“Right. Well, I’ll tell you as much as I know. Her name is Y/N. I don’t know her last name. That’s who I met with. I was given instructions by Miles Luna. They both work at a tech firm downtown, owned by Matt Hullum. I’m not sure what sort of information Y/N gave me, but it was a simple flash drive. I was supposed to deliver it at a specific location and leave. It was in front of Maze Bank, next to the fountain. Well, I did as I was instructed, but I got curious, so I stuck around out of line of sight. I assumed Miles was going to pick up the drive, but it was some chick. So I followed her. Later I found out her name’s Lindsay Tuggey. She brought the flashdrive to a bar and I lost sight of her there, but the bar’s name is Mojito Inn. It’s a small and run down looking thing, but I did some digging. The place is unofficially owned by the Roosters. Miles called me up several days later, asked how everything went, I told him that I did my part and that was that. Don’t know why they were working with the Roosters, but that’s what it looked like.”

Ryan thought for a second, taking everything Joel said in.  _ Was this their version of recruitment? Was Y/N in way more over her head than she realizes?  _ “Thanks Joel.” Ryan said and started walking away.

“Wait! I have so many questions! Why do you need this information?” Joel called out.

“None of your business.” Ryan said coldly, not even bothering to turn around. Joel was left behind and Ryan got back on his bike. He started the engine and was about to pull away from Joel when he heard a voice in his comm.  __

“Hel-!” Alfredo’s voice was cut off by an unmistakable sound of a punch and then silence. Ryan heard shuffling on the other side of the comm and then the line went dead.

“Fredo…” Ryan whispered as he sped away towards Alfredo’s eagle nest. He got there within minutes and raced up to the rooftop. Ryan was gone, only Vagabond remained. Vagabond saw red. If they did something to his teammate, they were about to pay. He burst through the doors leading to the roof and looked around. First thing that Vagabond saw was blood. There was blood on the ground, but not much. Not enough to be lethal. He knelt down and looked at it closer. It was fresh. There was a fight. Next to the pool of blood laid pieces that once used to be Alredo’s comm system.

Looking around more, Vagabond noticed Alfredo’s sniper rifle, still propped against the roof, pointing in what he could only assume was Miles’ direction. His composure softened and he picked up the sniper rifle, pulling the strap over his shoulder. Ryan looked around the roof again, seeing if he could find any clue to what happened here. Alfredo was a good fighter, he doesn’t go down easily. And for him to call out for help, knowing that he was about to be defeated. Just didn’t seem like Fredo… 

“Hey Golden Boy?” Ryan called out to his comm. “We have a situation. I need eyes on Eagle Nest.” 

“What’s up, V?” Gavin responded immediately.

“Don’t tell others yet. It’s Sauce.”

~~~~

Gavin

Right after the meeting, Gavin sat down at his computer and pulled up everything they already knew on the Roosters. He pulled everything up on ScrewAttack and your firm as well. Admittedly the latter two was not much. Gavin was scrolling through the information and decided to start with the tech firm you worked at. Breaking into the personal database of the firm was surprisingly easy, considering this was a tech firm full of people like you who knew how to code something much better than this weak excuse for a firewall. 

Once inside, Gavin transferred all the files that looked important into his Golden Web to look over later. He was about to move on when he noticed a folder that caught his attention. The folder title was written in symbols rather than an alphabet and when Gavin clicked on it, the message  _ clearance level invalid  _ flashed on his screen in red.  _ Interesting.  _ Trying his usual methods of hacking around it, didn’t work, so he sat down and started to seriously work at it. He always liked a challenge. He picked up a mug sitting next to him that had a British flag on it and sipped his tea. 

“Alright, let’s see what you have for me.” He said, mostly to himself. He cracked his knuckles and went at it. He was in the zone, cracking one firewall after another. Suddenly, his phone buzzed. 

_ Micoo <3. _

_ Hey Gav. I’m in Lindsay’s car. Looks like she knows something. Not sure where she’s taking me.  _

A few seconds later a new text came in.

_ Um, I think we’re off to her apartment? _

And then Michael shared his location with Gavin.  _ Silly boy, I was already tracking his phone.  _

Gavin replied with  _ stay safe ;)  _ and put his phone down, checking his progress on the firewall again. After another several minutes of curses and a, now empty, mug of tea, Gavin finally broke through. He laughed happily and looked through the materials of the folder. There was only one document inside titled Y/N Y/L/N. 

“What the-” 

Gavin clicked the folder and what he read sent a shiver down his spine. “Oh Y/N… You idiot.”

“Hey Golden Boy? We have a situation. I need eyes on Eagle Nest.” Ryan’s voice came over his comm, successfully snapping Gavin out of his stupor.

“What’s up, V?”

“Don’t tell others yet. It’s Sauce.” Ryan’s voice sounded distant.  _ Shit.  _

Gavin immediately pulled up the camera of Eagle Nest from LSPD. Static.

“V, it’s been shot out. Looking through mine.” Gavin worked quickly and finally managed to bring up a good view. He saw Vagabond standing in his skull mask with Alfredo’s sniper rifle on his back, looking out at the view of the city. “V, I’m in. What’s up? Where’s Sauce?” 

“Go back about 10 minutes, what do you see?”

Gavin rewinded the footage like he was told. Alfredo was laying down on the ground looking through his sniper rifle. Everything looked normal. Gavin skipped forward a minute. Alfredo was still on the ground, but suddenly the door behind him slowly crept open. Alfredo was still unaware of it. The figure was obscured by shadows and Gavin’s face ID program couldn’t see him well enough. Gavin looked closer at the figure when he noticed the gun in one of his hands.  _ Shit, shit, shit.  _ The figure came up behind Alfredo and pressed the gun against the back on his head. Alfredo visibly tensed and Gavin could tell that the figure was speaking to him. Afterwards, sniper rifle completely abandoned, a fight began, but Alfredo ended up on his back. Gavin saw Fredo reach up to his comm and yell, “Hel-!” Before he finished, the figure, a man, slammed the back of his pistol on Alfredo’s head and there was silence. 

Gavin held his breath, not believing what he was witnessing in front of him on the screen. Tears stung at his eyes, but he had to press on. He had a job to do. The man kneeled down and pressed two fingers to Alfredo’s neck. Whatever he discovered, he seemed satisfied. Then he reached into Alfredo’s ear and pulled out the communicator and stepped on it. The man looked around more and walked directly towards Gavin’s camera.  _ Im-Impossible…  _

“Listen up you punks. He’s alive. I know the Fakes are behind the attacks. You better lay the fuck off, or next time your crew member will have a much worse fate.” The man stood directly in front of the camera, but he pulled up a hood and it was difficult to identify him. “Come pick him up at Derriere Lingerie Backlot. It’s not a setup. He’ll be in the back in a red Camaro. Pick him up before 3:46pm and the Camaro won’t blow up. In exchange, we want you to lay the fuck off of us. We’re not stupid, we’re not about to pick fights with the Fake AH Crew.” And with that the man walked away. 

“Hey V?” Gavin’s voice was shaking. He cleared his throat and continued. “Back of Derriere Lingerie Backlot. Get there before 3:46. Red Camaro rigged with explosives.” 

“Got it. Thanks.” Ryan responded. No, not Ryan. Gavin recognized the cold tone of his voice. Ryan was gone, this was only the Vagabond.

“V, don’t kill anyone. Not yet.” Gavin said, hoping Vagabond would listen to him.

“Mhmm.” Was the only indication that he heard him, before there was a sound of the motorcycle and then Ryan’s comm going quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you guys think! So much information and so many new people! AHHH!
> 
> Also! This is officially the longer piece of writing I have ever done! 50 pages single spaced, 100 double spaced!


	10. We Will Get To The Bottom Of This - Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's figure out what we know so far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that this took me so long to upload! I was moving and figuring out my living arrangements as well as having a writer's block! Didn't mean for it to be a month before I uploaded this, but I hope you like it!

Ryan

Ryan raced towards the Derriere Lingerie Backlot. He was barely paying attention to the passing traffic, the wind passing through his skull mask with a whistle.  _ Don’t kill anyone. Not until you get to Alfredo.  _ He was seeing red and knew without the constant reminders, he would snap.

He got to the Backlot in record time and parked his bike next to a dumpster in the back alley. He creeped around the perimeter, suspiciously there were no guards that he could see.  _ This has to be a trap, right?  _

“Hey, Golden Boy?” Ryan spoke into his comm.

“I’m here, V.”

“Any visuals to aid me? I see no guards around, I never trust that.”

“On it, give me a second.” Gavin replied with.

Ryan waited for Gavin, while his hand was tensing around his silenced pistol.

“Alright, V. Doesn’t look like anyone’s there. There is a camera pointing to the back parking lot, I already hacked into it and will erase any footage of you, but rather than that, the place looks abandoned.”

“This sounds like a trap to you?”

“I’m zooming in right now… Ok, I see the Camaro. The windows are tinted, can’t identify if the Sauce is in. This does seem too easy… Be careful V, I’ll be your eyes.”

Ryan gave a short nod, mostly to himself, and began approaching. His skull mask felt heavier than usual as he crept up to the fence that was lining the back parking lot. He quickly climbed up it and jumped over, landing gracefully down. He looked around, but still saw no one. The silence felt eerie. He spotted the red Camaro and began making his way towards it. He checked the other cars as well, but the windows were all tainted, so it didn’t help much. Once he finally got to the Camaro, he checked the exterior of it. There were two trip wires that he found attached to the handle of the trunk. Rather than that, the car looked clean. 

“You’re in the clear.” Gavin announced and Ryan decided to open the driver seat first.

There was nothing on the handle that he saw, but just in case he wanted to shoot out the window, but without knowing where Alfredo was exactly, he could risk hurting him. Ryan checked the time. 3:28pm. Little less than 20 minutes left, but Ryan was running out of patience.  _ This is for Fredo, calm down.  _

He put his hand gingerly on the handle and pulled. The door clicked open without the explosions going off. Ryan carefully opened the door the rest of the way and peaked inside. Alfredo was sitting in the passenger’s seat, tied up and muffled. He had some blood on his face, dripping from his forehead, but rather than that he seemed okay. As soon as he saw him, he tried to smile, but the mouth gag prevented him from doing much. 

“I’ve got eyes on him.” Ryan told Gavin who let out an excited squeal. 

“Alright Fredo, gotta get you out of here.” Ryan took out his knife and cut through the gag first.

“Ugh, thanks Vagabond. Fucking assholes.” Alfredo spit out some of the fabric that was in his mouth and moved his tongue around his lips. 

Ryan cut through the rest of the ropes and Alfredo wiggled his joints.

“Can you move?” Ryan asked. Fredo gave him a nod and moved to open the passenger side door. “Wait! We don’t know what exactly is rigged with explosions, climb to this side.”

Ryan moved out of the car and Alfredo carefully climbed over the dashboard to the driver’s seat and out of the car. 

“Golden Boy, we good?”

“I don’t see anyone.”

Ryan gave Alfredo a nod and moved to the back of the car.  _ If he was inside, why booby trap the trunk.  _

“Step back.” Ryan instructed. He moved back with Alfredo and took out his pistol. He focused on his breathing and looked at the trip wires that shined in the sun.  _ They are so obvious…  _ Ryan pulled his pistol up and fired. The bullet has just glazed the trip wires, cutting them instantly. Silence. 

“Deactivated?” Alfredo asked. Ryan shrugged his shoulders and walked closer to the car.

“I’m going to open it, you stand back, ok?” Ryan was slowly approaching the trunk.

“V, I know you’re the Vagabond and all, but you’re not invincible. Please be careful.”

_ Of course I know I’m not invincible…  _

Ryan put his hand on the trunk and pulled. For a second it felt like the world had slowed down, time stopped. Nobody moved. Silence. Ryan continued opening the trunk and looked inside. He expected to see explosives, but instead it was a singular folder. No title, nothing on the cover. Blank. He picked it up carefully and waited for it to trigger an explosion, but there was nothing. Alfredo walked up to stand behind Ryan.

“The fuck is that?” He asked. Ryan shrugged his shoulders, unsure of what to make of it.

Ryan carefully opened the folder and a piece of paper fell out onto the ground. Alfredo leaned down and picked it up. On it, in different fonts and different sizes was a message.

_ Let her go. We let you go. We know you’re keeping her. She’s ours. _

“Are they talking about…” Alfredo began questioning, but Ryan cut him off.

“Who else. We need to show the others. Let’s go.”

“V? Everything okay over there?” Gavin asked over the coms.

“We have a letter here, organize a meeting with everyone. Let Geoff know what’s going on.” Ryan answered back.

“On it.” The sound of coms going mute echoed through Ryan’s head as he was trying to figure out what was happening.

Alfredo and Ryan made their way back to Ryan’s bike in silence. Once they retrieved it from behind the dumpster, Ryan broke the silence.

“That just makes no sense… What the fuck do they mean that she’s theirs?”

“You don’t think she’s a double agent, do you?”

“She wouldn’t do that… I’m not saying that I trust her, but I do trust Jeremy.”

“And you sure she doesn’t have him fooled as well?” Alfredo asked and then put on his helmet and got on the bike behind Ryan.

There were too many questions swimming in Ryan’s mind. He had to talk to Jeremy.

~~~~

You

“Hey, J?” You asked, feeling bored as Jeremy still hasn’t allowed you to leave the med bay, although it has already been, what felt like, weeks.

The only response you received was a low grunt from Jeremy as his back was to you and he was still messing with the chemicals and blood samples.

“You figure it out yet?” You asked him, feeling a little childish for annoying him with your constant questioning.

“Y/N, if I would have figured it out by now, do you think I’d still be wasting my time away with all these chemicals? No. I would be overjoyed that I have found it and screaming it at the top of my lungs. Believe me, if I figure it out, you would be able to tell.” He said, his back still turned to you. His attention unwavering from the beacons in front of him.

“So… what do we know it’s not already?” You asked, unable to sit still and stay away from the questions. You realized that your constant prying was probably slowing him down, but you didn’t care. Boredom was a powerful thing.

“It’s not any of the common poisons, it’s not most of the nuclear ones that I have tested. No to Arsenic, no to cyanide. I am kind of running out of ideas. Currently testing for lead poisoning, but that would make no sense, but I have to cross it off the list.”

“What about Polonium-210?”

“A what?”

“Polonium-210. There was some Russian dude who died from it in 2006, well murdered more so, but yeah. That? I don’t know, just throwing out ideas.”

“Radioactive poisoning… Y/N, you might be on to something, though you better pray that it’s not that. How the fuck do I even test for Polonium poisoning. Shit, back to the books.”

“So I am still annoying or am I useful for once?” You grinned at Jeremy. He finally turned around to face you. He was grinning too, but his eyes were tired.

“Annoyingly useful is what I’d go with.” Jeremy stood up and stretched. He came over to you and checked your vitals.

“Am I dying, doc?” You joked. Jeremy looked at you, a serious look on his face.

“Don’t joke about that.” He said and turned back to your vitals, a shadow falling over his features.

“Oh… Sorry.” You sometimes forget the line of work that Jeremy is in. Makes you wonder how many people he lost.

Jeremy wrote something down on a clipboard that was next to your med bed and went back to his beakers. An uncomfortable silence fell between the two. It was suddenly broken by a phone call.

“Sup V? Yeah. Yeah, she’s here. Oh. Ok. Wait a second.” Jeremy looked at you and quickly walked out of the room. You were curious about what Ryan had to tell him to get him rushing out of the room so far.

Jeremy was standing in the lobby, leaning against the wall. His eyes kept glancing at you and then quickly turning away.  _ Looks like bad news.  _ Jeremy was saying something, and it looked like he was arguing with Ryan about something. When the phone call finally ended, Jeremy hadn't moved. His eyes were glued to the ground, his posture tense. You could tell that whatever it was that Ryan told him has shaken him up.

After what felt like eternity, Jeremy was walking back towards the med bay. He was standing at the entrance, two deep lines etched into his forehead. He took a deep breath and his shoulders were shaking. He opened the door and walked in.

“J? You good? What was that about?”

“Why don’t you tell me that, Y/N?” Jeremy asked. His voice dark.

“What… do you mean…?” You asked carefully, trying to read Jeremy. It was proving to be impossible.

“Stop that!” He yelled suddenly. You flinched and sat up straight. “Stop the fucking secrets!”

“Jeremy, what the fuck are you talking about?”

“Are you working for them? Was that why you became my friend in the first place? Were you in that club for a reason? How long was your play supposed to be, huh?!” Jeremy’s temper was visibly rising with every question that he was throwing at you. Suddenly he turned and kicked over a chair causing you to visibly flinch.

“Jeremy, calm the fuck down! What are you even talking about? Who am I working for? What? I’ve always been your friend J, just cause you’re you!” You were raising your voice too.  _ Great, all we need is a screaming match right now. _

“The Roosters. Are you working for the Roosters?” Jeremy asked you after taking a deep breath. His eyes finally met yours and you could see the amount of pain that was in them.

“What? Of course not! Those bastards shot me!” You shouted back at him, unable to take it anymore. Tears were pouring down your face as you jumped out of your med bed, challenging Jeremy.

“And how do I know that wasn’t a double play? Make us trust you more, cause they hurt you? Roosters are fucking good, how did they only get you in the shoulder and miss everything vital? The poison died out in your system without us even having to treat it much. By the time Jack gave you the antidote, there was barely any in your bloodstream!” Jeremy took a couple steps forward and the two of you were in each other's faces, “This is the Roosters, we’re talking about! They are known for finishing off their victims. Explain this to me then! How is Trevor completely fine when so many bullets went only after you? Hmm?” Jeremy sounded so convincing and hurt that you almost believed him yourself, but you weren’t a double agent. You knew that for a fact. 

“Jeremy, I don’t know. I don’t know how I’m alive or why they are so fucking hell bent on getting me and why they didn’t finish me. I don’t know! I don’t know what to tell you!”

“The truth! Tell me the truth, Y/N!”

“I am telling you the truth! I have nothing to do with those assholes! I’m a Fake, not a Rooster.” You scream back at him. You were shaking from the sudden outburst of energy after laying in bed for so long.

“We will see about that…” Jeremy whispered.

“What do you mean?” You asked.

“Nothing.” Jeremy muttered and started to walk away. You ran up to him and spun him around.

“Don’t you fucking do that to me now! What the fuck do you mean ‘we’ll see about that?’ Jeremy, I went through your fucking mini heist idea of an initiation, I have a scar now to prove it. I made my choice, so don’t you dare not let me join now. After everything, I deserve it.” You felt suddenly weak. Your body was running on adrenaline and it wasn’t enough to sustain it. Your vision was becoming blurry. You stumbled and almost fell forward, but caught yourself.

“Shit, Y/N? You ok?” Jeremy asked, coming forward to your aid and helping you lean on him. All the earlier anger, replaced by concern. Your legs gave out and you fell forward. Everything was spinning and Jeremy’s voice sounded far away. You were beginning to slip under again.

You were wet. That was the first that your brain registered. You blinked several times and looked around. You were sitting on the ground with your back pressed against the wall. Jeremy was looking you up and down in front of you, an empty water cup in his right hand, his left holding on to your shoulder.

“Better?” He asked. When you didn’t answer him right away, he tried again. “Hey! Y/N! Can you hear me? You feelin’ better?”

You nodded slowly, adjusting into a more comfortable sitting position.

“Don’t scare me like that. This is why you should rest more, you’re not ready yet. Let me see your stitches.” He moved to your shoulder and moved your bandages over. Jeremy informed you that your stitches were still in place and healing well.

When you regained enough of your consciousness, you looked at Jeremy again. You noted again just how tired he looked. “I’m sorry-” You started, but Jeremy put up his hand stopping you mid apology.

“Don’t. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m the one who owes you an apology. When Ryan and Alfredo get back, I’ll explain better on my outburst. I should have trusted you right away. I know you won’t betray me like that.” You gave him a half hearted small smile, not able to do much more currently. You were tired.

As if reading your mind, Jeremy helped you up. “You should rest. I’ll wake you up if you’re needed.” 

~~~~

Geoff

The Fakes were all sitting in front of Geoff at the long table in the conference room. Everyone was accounted for except for Michael, whose phone went straight to voicemail. It would have worried him, but Gavin swears that he’s fine and he’ll catch him up on this later.

A headache was circling around, threatening to overtake Geoff again. He took a long sigh and decided to begin the meeting. He looked over at Jack, who was sitting by his side, and she gave him back an encouraging smile.

“Alright shit heads. What do we know so far? Fiona, Matt, and Trevor. What have you found?” Geoff asked, looking around the room at his crew.

“We talked with Jon. Someone attacked the Roosters last night.” Trevor stated. This got people to whisper. “Professionals too. Knew to strike while they were at a job. No survivors. Rumors are that the Vagabond was on the scene.” This got everybody’s head to turn towards Ryan.

“Excuse me?” Ryan lifted an eyebrow, looking expectantly at Trevor.

“Your MO was used. Just as vicious of a kill, using the same weapons.” Trevor explained.

“Great, so now we have a copy cat too?” Jeremy exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

“Anything else, Trevor?” Geoff supplied.

“There were witnesses at the convenience store. No one knows it was us, but more rumors going around that a newbie is out on the streets. No clue what witnesses these are, I thought we killed everybody. Anyways, people caught on that there was an initiation, but they don’t know that we were behind it.” 

“Thank you, Trevor. Jeremy, any luck with the poison?” Geoff turned his attention to the other man.

“Nothing yet. It’s none of the common ones. Y/N suggested radioactivity which is the only thing I have yet to test. It didn’t affect her too much, though. Didn’t even reach her bloodstream. Whatever this was, it was meant to strike her more than it actually did.” Jeremy responded, but Geoff noted that his gaze seemed far away and not at all present.

“How is she doing, J?” Geoff tried showing as much affection and kindness in his voice and was hoping Jeremy wouldn’t take it as pity.

“She passed out today. Over exerted herself. She needs more bed rest.”

“It makes no sense. If you are shooting at someone, why go through the trouble of poisoning them to death. Wouldn’t a bullet do just as much damage?” Fiona asked. Silence fell over the room. They were all thinking the same thing, Fiona was right. This made no sense. None of this did.

“Ryan and Fredo, what the fuck happened with you two?” Geoff asked, looking between the two of them. Ryan spoke first.

“I talked with Joel. Fuck that dude is infuriating. Anyways. He said Miles gave him instructions to drop off the flash drive that Y/N gave him and that was that. He stuck around though. Instead of Miles, this Lindsay chick picked it up. Dropped it off at Mojito Inn. Rooster territory. That’s as much as he knows.”

“Lindsay working for the Roosters?” Gavin squeaked from his seat.

“Sounds like it, why?” Ryan asked, confused by the sudden panic in Gavin’s eyes.

“I need to get in contact with Michael, if you’ll excuse me!” Gavin said, already standing up.

“Hold up, what’s happening?” Geoff stopped his sudden retreat.

“Michael is screwing her right now and I need to make sure he’s safe!” Was Gavin’s explanation and he was already out the door.  _ I’m getting too old for this,  _ Geoff thought miserably. Silence seemed to stretch as no one was sure how to follow that up.

“Well,” Geoff continued, “Alfredo, what happened with you?”

“Was ambushed. Should have heard them coming, but I got lost in my thoughts. Reckless, I know. Miles was having an argument with someone on the phone and the next thing I knew there was a gun pressed against my head. I’m fine though. I think they just needed to pass the note. That was all.” Alfredo explained.

“Fredo notified me right before he got knocked out so I asked Gavin to roll the footage.” Ryan continued, “We got to his location and there was no one there. Just this note.” He pushed the note to the center of the table and let everyone read over it.

_ Let her go. We let you go. We know you’re keeping her. She’s ours. _

As everyone passed the note around and whispered among themselves, Gavin walked back in.

“Sorry ‘bout that, he’s um… he’s fine and said to not call him for several hours… I- I think questioning is going well.” Gavin supplied. When he got back in his seat he noticed the note and read over it.

“We let you go? Like those assholes fucking have us.” Matt commented.

“Do they think we’re keeping her hostage?” Gavin asked.

Jeremy was looking over the note the longest. He was being quiet and Geoff was getting worried.

“J?” He asked. Jeremy snapped his head up to look at his boss. “You good?” Jeremy was visibly shaking, his eyes filled with anger. His fists were clenching hard. Ryan put a hand on his shoulder and he seemed to visibly relax.

“Those assholes are gonna pay.” Jeremy growled through gritted teeth.

“They will, Jeremy. I promise you that.” Ryan said to him, his hand not leaving Jeremy’s shoulder.

“Well, Gavin, you find anything useful?” Geoff sighed.

“A lot actually. The tech company had a pretty weak firewall for most of their personal files, which took me by surprised, but then I found another folder. The title of it caught my attention and it was very heavily encrypted. Took me a couple of hours to break through it, but inside was just one other folder titled Y/N Y/L/N.” Gavin paused for dramatic effect and all eyes were on him. 

“Well? What was in it, asshole?” Jeremy asked impatiently.

“Everything. Date of birth, every address she ever lived in, her education history, every person she ever dated or been friends with, cars she owned, places she worked at. Her entire daily schedule was displayed by dates. Any detour from her usual routine was recorded. This was some major stalking level. Jeremy, your friendship is in vivid details. From your first meeting to every interaction the two of you ever had. I mean, there was everything. They had a bug in her apartment. Every conversation she ever had there, everything was recorded and typed out. It abruptly stopped the day that she joined us though. Right at around the time when we picked her up. I’m sure they tracked the vehicle though. I’m pretty sure they know where the penthouse is.”

The silence that followed was deafening. No one said a word, contemplating and processing the information in their own way. 

“Are we compromised?” Jack asked, speaking for the first time since the meeting started? 

“I’m not sure. There’s still a lot of information that I had to dig through.” Gavin answered honestly.

“You said her apartment was bugged?” Jeremy looked at Gavin, the intensity of the stare made Gavin squirm.

“How do we know that we didn’t transfer the bug to here when we moved her in?” Jeremy stated, voice scarily calm.

“Shit.” Trevor cursed and ran his hand through his fingers.

“Might have been how they knew I was at Eagle’s Nest when I was.” Alfredo supplied.

“Why?” Geoff looked up at his crew. “What did she do that they are keeping this extensive of a history on her?”

“Beats me.” Matt said.

“Is this because she’s friends with me?” Jeremy sounded so pained and miserable, Geoff couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

“It might be. But we are not sure. Can’t blame ourselves till we know an answer.” Fiona said, looking at Jeremy with a pitiful look that Geoff was sure was mirroring his own.

“We will get to the bottom of this, J.” Geoff announced, trying to regain his confident stature.

“We need to go through her entire room. Check every possible place for a bug. Don’t be afraid to trash the place a bit, I’m sure we can fix it back up afterwards. We need to all lay low for a little bit, until we are sure that there is no threat to the penthouse. And don’t tell Y/N about any of this. We don’t want her to worry, might slow her recovery process. Jeremy, try to get some rest as well. Ryan, take Jeremy’s place. Go comfort her. The rest of you, let’s go find that bug.” Jack said as she stood up to address the Fakes. This was why Geoff loved her so much. When he felt like everything was crumbling around them and the situation seemed dire, Jack was there to be level headed, productive, straight to the point.

The crew started to disperse, leaving for their respective tasks. Jeremy was starting to argue, but Ryan took him by the shoulders and led him away. Soon enough only Geoff and Jack were remaining in the room.

“This is a mess.” Geoff declared.

“When was the last time that we recruited someone without some sort of baggage behind them?” Jack stated, more than asked. She came up behind Geoff and started rubbing his shoulders. He visibly relaxed under her touch, closing his eyes.

“I love you.” He sighed.

“I know.” Jack responded, leaning over his shoulder to plant a soft kiss on his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading another chapter! Let me know what you guys think so far and if you like it, leave some kudos! What do you think the crew will do next? What did you get yourself into?  
> Love you all! ~ Aya!


	11. The World Won't Stop Spinning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Too many things in your life are changing and you're not sure if you know what the appropriate response to it all is yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Warning: Panic attack!
> 
> Enjoy the read!

You woke up alerted to a presence sitting on the, previously kicked over, chair by your med bay. You stretched carefully and through your yawn greeted the person.

“Hey, Jere-bear.”

“Well, actually… Um, it’s Ryan.” You heard a low voice respond, slowly getting up to walk closer to you. You looked to your side and were greeted by deep blue eyes, looking over you with concern and calculation.

“Oh! Sorry Ryan. Just assumed it was Jeremy. Is he alright?” You started to slowly sit up in your bed, looking at Ryan’s body language for clues to your question. However, you didn’t know him as well as you did Jeremy and it was impossible to read his stance. His shoulders seemed relaxed enough and he didn’t hold any malice in his eyes as he continued to stare at you.

“Yeah, he was just tired. I was… um, well… Assigned to look after you, while he rested.” Ryan explained, shifting uncomfortably from one leg to the next. “So… How are you?”

“Feeling like shit, but glad to know that Jeremy is resting. He looked really tired earlier.” You recalled the earlier events of the day and couldn’t help but squint accusingly at Ryan. “So, what the fuck did you tell him that he decided to go all nuclear on me that my friendship with him became questionable?” You asked, spewing the words at Ryan with venom.

Ryan sighed and scratched the back of his neck, “Look, I’ll explain better later. Quick rundown, we found something. It made you out to be suspicious to say the least. Listen, I don’t doubt Jeremy’s judgement of you, or that you might belong here, but you are a newbie and we have to just, you know, be sure.”

“What the fuck did you find that made  _ me  _ sound suspicious?”

Ryan thought for a second, studying you. Finally he decided to let up some information. “A note. Jack doesn’t want me to tell you of the entirety of this yet, not until we know more and are sure of a couple of things, but the Roosters have basically claimed you as theirs.”

“Excuse me?!” You asked, suddenly jolting up in bed.

“Like I said, we’ll explain better as soon as we get all the information sorted out. We don’t want to worry you if you don’t have to.” You could tell that Ryan wasn’t telling you the full truth and it frustrated you to no end, but you realized that you have also barely known these guys. It’s crazy how circumstances like these can really screw the perception of time and throws out any precious concept of trust issues that you had. You owed your life to these guys now.

“Did you track down Joel?” You asked instead.

“Yes actually.” Something changed in Ryan’s face, but just as quickly as it came, it was gone and you had no idea what to account for it. His voice sounded dark, annoyed almost. You decided to not press on.

“So when am I out of bed rest?”

Ryan looked you up and down and then out of the med bay and down the hall towards the general direction of the crew rooms. “Missing being my neighbor?” Ryan asked, turning to face you again, a smirk on his face. He seemed to return to the normal guy you first met, not this awkward, not sure what to say, Ryan you saw earlier.

“Didn’t really get to be your neighbor much, so not entirely sure what you’re like.” You stated, mirroring his smirk with one of your own.

“Oh, I promise that you’ll be asking to get a new roommate soon enough if you knew what I was like.” Ryan visibly relaxed, crossing his hands in front of his chest. He really was a large man in a way that he could make you feel so small, towering over you, muscles flexed unintentionally.

“Oh, should I get earplugs? Will there be a lot of screams coming from your room?” You played along with his sudden playful tone.

“Screams? Why would there be screams coming from my room, Y/N?” Ryan asked, moving closer to your bed, putting his hand on the headboard and leaning over you. You had to gulp before continuing your thought process.

“Well, um… I- I mean… Well… You are, you are the Vagabond.” You stammer out.

“I am. So?” Ryan asked, amused by your sudden red cheeks.

“Well, the screams must come from you either torturing something in your room, or… I- Um- I don’t know… Well, you know.”

“I don’t know. Not really catching on.” Ryan said, leaning impossibly closer to you, until he whispers into your ear, “are you implying that I’m going to have loud sex in my room, right next to where your bed is located?” His words sent a shiver down your spine that you tried to hide, but considering Ryan’s low chuckle, you were sure that he caught on. Your cheeks burned even a brighter shade of red than earlier. Just as suddenly as he was there, Ryan was gone and sitting in his chair again. “I’m just messing with you, Y/N. Don’t be so serious.” He said and winked at you, before settling down and pulling out his phone to browse through something. 

You willed your racing heart to calm down and you adjusted in your bed again, not sure what to say. An awkward silence fell between the two of you, which you were sure Ryan enjoyed every second of.  _ He really is the Vagabond through and through,  _ you thought miserably. You watched him lounging in his chair, one arm draped over the back, leaning to the right, the other hand scrolling through his phone, right leg crossed over the left. He looked so undoubtedly normal, you could tell why no policemen would ever pinpoint the Vagabond to Ryan. They just seemed so opposite. And yet… There was that dangerous gleam in his eyes. The way he carries himself, confident, like he owns every place he steps in, almost as if there was a crown on his head.

“You’re staring.” Ryan suddenly broke you out of your thoughts as he states, without looking up from his phone.

“Right. Sorry.” You apologized, quickly turning away.

“I didn’t say that I mind. Just pointed it out.” Ryan chucked, still unmoving from his perch.

“Oh.” You whispered, looking down at your hands.

“Hey guys!” A female voices suddenly sounded from the doorway. A female was standing there with a tray of food and another man was standing behind her with a similar tray in his hands. You were trying to remember their names, throwing Ryan a panicked look.

“Thanks Fiona.” Ryan said immediately. You smiled at him, thankful that he understood you.

“Ryan, don’t fight. Matt has food for you as well.” Fiona said as she walked into the room and carefully sat the tray down next to you. You shot her a grateful look.

“Matt, what the fuck? I don’t need you to baby me.” Ryan protested immediately as Matt walked in.

“Look man. I don’t care what you say to me right now, you need sustenance. You haven’t eaten anything since you and Fredo got back. Now shut the fuck up and eat.” Matt spit back at him, setting the tray on the bedside table. “Y/N, make sure he eats.” Matt looks at you and you nod back to him.

“Alright. Thank you both.” You smile.

Ryan mumbled something about not being hungry, but soon after you started eating, he picked up his own tray as well. You and Ryan had the same array of sandwiches, fruits, and a desert, as well as a bottle of water. It looked like something that got served on airplanes. The two of you ate in relative silence of chewing and the occasional crunch of sliced fruit. After you were both done, Ryan offered to take the trays over to the kitchen. You let him take them and after he left, you counted to 30 seconds, before getting out of bed and slipping out of the med bay.

You looked around the penthouse, trying to remember your way around. You’ve been here several times, but it’s been some time since you really left the med bay and everything looked a surprising mix of alien and home. You walked towards the general direction that you remember your room was, trying hard to not be seen.

You passed by the kitchen and heard a conversation coming from within. As soon as you heard your name, you paused and hovered near the door. You knew you were at a danger of getting caught, but your curiosity was overwhelming any rationality. 

“No, I haven’t told her.” Ryan’s voice stated.

“Good. She doesn’t need to know yet.” A female voice answered. Jack.

“She  _ deserves  _ to know though.” Ryan sounded like this wasn’t the first time he had this argument with her.

“I realize that, but now is not the time. After we clean out her room and make sure that it was just a precaution, we’ll know that at least we’re not compromised.”

“You’re digging through her shit and keeping it behind her back! How is that fair to her at all? At least ask for permission. She’s reasonable, she’ll understand.”

“So what do you want me to do? Come up to her and just be like, ‘hey Y/N, how are you recovering? Oh by the way, can we completely trash your room in search of a bug? Oh by the way, your apartment was bugged and you had a stalker who recorded every move you ever made for several years now.’ Is that what you want me to do?” Jack raised her voice. You gasped and hoped it wasn’t loud enough for them to hear.  _ A stalker? A bug? Have known of everything that I’ve done? What the fuck are they talking about? _

“Well, not like that, but at least let her know a little bit of what is going on. Soften the blow when she eventually finds out. Keeping this a secret from her, can’t end well.” Ryan defended.

“V, I know you care for her, but we need to put the crew first here. If the bug is still in her room, who knows how much they already know about us.”

“I  _ don’t  _ care about her.” Ryan growled, which hurt. “But, she is also crew now. Plus, I know Jeremy and how big his mouth is. He was friends with her for long enough to tell her-”

“What are you doing here?” A voice suddenly caused you to spin around from behind your eavesdropping perch. Before you stood Michael, looking you up and down suspiciously. Inside the kitchen, the conversation stopped.

“Michael! Um, hi! I was, um- I was just- Well I was- Going to the kitchen- for a- a drink! Yes, I was going to the kitchen to grab myself a drink.” You stammered, trying to sell the story.

Not buying any of it, Michael shook his head. “First of all, you shouldn’t be getting a drink in your state and second of all, cut the bullshit.” As he said that, Ryan and Jack stepped out of the kitchen looking between you and Michael. You looked between the three Fakes, slowly backing up towards the med bay.

“Um, hi! Um, I’m gonna go now.” You said, but your back suddenly hit Michael’s chest. His hands came up and grabbed you by the shoulders.

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Jack said, staring at you intensely, a scowl on her face.

“How much did you hear?” Ryan asked, his voice cold, demanding.

“I didn’t hear anything. I don’t kn-”

“Cut that out, you’re a terrible liar. How much did you hear?” Ryan cut you off, repeating himself.

“Right. Honestly, I heard nothing. Forgotten.” You tried again.

“No secrets between crew, so spit it out.” Jack barked out the order.

You looked at Jack, suddenly getting a burst of confidence and feeling angry of the things she tried to keep from you. “Funny isn’t it? The ‘no secrets’ part? Considering you’re keeping one from me.” You glared at Jack, hoping your gaze was at least half as intimidating as hers was. You stood your ground, even as everything in your body screamed at you to back away and shy away.

“So it wasn’t nothing.” Jack sighed. “If you want to tell her, now seems like a great fucking time.” Jack was fuming, throwing her hand in your general direction, looking directly at Ryan. He shot her a look that you weren’t familiar with and it seemed as though the two of them were conversing without words. Eventually Ryan sighed and looked at you.

“Michael, you should catch up on everything with Gavin and give Geoff a status report.” Ryan said evenly, his eyes unwavering from yours. Michael released your shoulders and moved towards Gavin’s office without a word of protest, sensing the density of the tension. “Y/N, you should take a seat.” 

Ryan led you to a set of couches and armchairs in the living room. You took a seat at one of the arm chairs and looked expectantly at him. Jack took a seat next to Ryan on one of the larger couches.

“I told you earlier that we found a note. Well, Fredo was… um… sort of kidnapped.” 

“What? Is he okay?” You asked, unsure of what ‘sort of kidnapped’ meant versus a… regular type of kidnapping?

“He’s fine. He didn’t get hurt. They just needed to give us the note and they went above and beyond on delivering it to us. The note, in summary, said that they know that we’re keeping you here and they would like us to return you to them. They claim that you’re theirs and if we do so, they’ll leave us alone, whatever the fuck that means.” Ryan explained further. 

You narrowed your eyebrows, not sure what the Roosters could possibly mean by that. They didn’t own you and you sure as hell was not about to go willingly to them.

“Gavin also dug deeper into your tech firm. There might be more there than you were aware of. They had something against you specifically. There was a folder that apparently took Gavin hours to break through their security to get to.” Gavin was an incredible coder and an even better hacker. You were getting nervous to hear what was in the folder, though you had a pretty good idea from what Jack said earlier. You willed yourself to continue listening even as you dreaded the outcome. “Inside, was just a folder with your first and last name. It had… well…  _ everything  _ on you. I want to say this lightly, I do, but that’s what it was. It had every last detail on you. From your daily schedule to every person who’s ever been close to you. There’s… a lot. I understand how terrifying this must sound and it seems like this started ever since you joined in with the company.”

“6 years ago?!” You blurted out, unsure of how to process any of the information that Ryan has just given you. You focused hard on your breathing, willing yourself to steady your increasing heart rate.

“That’s… not all.” Ryan continued. You looked up at him, scared for what else might come. “They’ve been in your apartment, Y/N. There was a bug. Every conversation you’ve had within your walls have been recorded and transcribed. We’re in your room here right now to search for said bug. See if it came here with your stuff. If you’d allow me to, I’d also like to search your phone.” 

Your world was spinning. This was too much. Too much to process all at once. Too much to wrap your head around. Too much, too much, too much. You were failing at keeping your breathing even. Your world was spinning. Did you already mention that? You felt suddenly claustrophobic in the vast living room space you were in. The walls seemed to close up on you. The light seemed to have been extinguished. You were no longer sitting on the arm chair, you were by yourself in the darkness. There was nothing in the darkness. Just you and the sudden tightness in your chest. You couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t will your lungs to intake air. You were suffocating. Your mind was racing, yet no thoughts were being processed. You felt like you were floating in space. Time stopped passing, you weren’t in any particular place, you just existed. You were spinning, suffocating from the lack of air, surrounded by nothing.Suddenly you were shaken roughly by your shoulders, adjusting your eyes, you were staring at concerned blue eyes in front of you. Ryan.

Ryan was kneeling in front of you. “Y/N? Back with us?” You nodded slowly and Ryan sighed, visibly relaxing. “You scared us there.”

He looked to the side and you followed his line of sight. Jack was standing next to him, hovering above the two of you. Ryan leaned his head to the side and Jack nodded. She put a reassuring hand on your shoulder and walked away.

“Sorry about that… Didn’t mean to scare you.” You whispered once Jack walked.

“Don’t apologize. We kind of just dropped this out of nowhere at you.” Ryan told you, taking your hand and squeezing it reassuringly.

“I don’t understand. Why are they after me?” You asked, wincing at how defeated your voice sounded to your own ears.

“We’re trying to figure it out. We thought it was because you dived into the ScrewAttack files, but it seems like this started way before then. I’m sorry to say, but I don’t know how many people from your past have been on your side. It looks like even Lindsay might have worked with the Roosters. But hey, we’ll figure it out. Alright? Together.”  _ Lindsay?  _ Lindsay was your best friend…  _ Was. _

“I want to help. Let me help search my room for the bug. I want to be useful.” You asked, looking Ryan directly in the eyes.

“Would you know what to look for exactly?”

“Something that doesn’t belong to me. I’ll ask you guys if I see anything.” You pleaded with your eyes. You needed to do  _ something!  _ You couldn’t just sit still anymore and you hoped that Ryan of all people would know that feeling.

After what felt like an eternal staring contest, he finally cave in. Ryan agreed to let you help, leading you to your own room. Inside, Trevor, Alfredo, Matt, and Fiona were hard at work going through every piece of belonging you ever had and careful scanning through them. When you and Ryan walked in, all action around the room stopped. Trevor looked at you and smiled so genuinely that you had to smile back. Several heads turned to Ryan as if in question.

“She knows everything. She wants to help. It’s her room after all. Her things.” Ryan announced to the room and no one seemed to question him. Everyone went back to work and both you and Ryan came over to your wardrobe and started pulling out your clothing and checking through every possibly seam and crevice.

After another 40 minutes or so, Fiona called everyone’s attention to her. In her palm she held a small black round device with a visible microphone in it. Ryan immediately motioned for everyone to stay quiet. He took the piece from Fiona and everyone followed him out the door and towards Gavin’s office. He knocked softly and the Brit opened the door immediately. Ryan showed him the device and Gavin carefully took it from him.

“Bugger me, you found it!” Gavin exclaimed.

“Shh!” Ryan shushed him.

“Oh relax, it couldn’t have picked anything up in here, don’t worry.” Gavin announced and six confused heads looked at him, blinking. “We have an audio jammer setup all around the complex. No way that anyone can hear anything. Though I’ll see if I can possibly pick anything up from this device and see if I can track the backwards signal. Thanks a bunch you guys!” After that, Gavin locked eyes with you and gave you a small sad, knowing smile. You returned one too and he closed the door behind him.

“Well, let’s go put Y/N’s room back in order so she can sleep there tonight.” Ryan turned to address the group. You looked up at him in surprise.  _ I get to sleep in my room tonight?  _

Everyone busied themselves with cleaning up your room, but you felt the exhaustion starting to hit and after you yawned for what felt like your twentieth time, Ryan took you by the hand and led you out of the room.

“What are you doing?” You asked, not sure what he had planned. You struggled a bit more against his iron grip of your wrist when he opened his own room and led you inside. 

“Lay down.” He pointed at the bed, releasing your arm.

“Um, Ryan what the fuck? No!” You blushed crimson red.

“Oh! Oh no! I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant!” Ryan threw his hands up in the sign of surrender and then laughed slightly, “I’m sorry, I’m an idiot. I just meant, go lay down. You should take a nap. I’ll come get you when we’re done with your room. Make yourself at home.” 

Relaxing after you realized that Ryan didn’t mean what you originally thought he meant, you thanked him for his hospitality. He assured you that it was nothing and told you to call for him if you needed anything. Afterwards, he waved at you and left the room. You could hear fair voices through the wall, knowing your room was on the other side of the wall. You decided to take his words to heart and went to the restroom to shower.

Putting your clothes carefully next to his sink, you hopped into his shower and lost yourself in the feeling of hot water running down your body. You looked over his shampoos and decided that Ryan probably wouldn’t mind much. After you washed your hair and dried yourself with one of his towels, you realized that you didn’t have any fresh clothes with you. You pulled the towel around your body and exited the bathroom carefully. You looked over Ryan’s room and noted an unsurprising dark tone to it. Most of his decor was either black or different shades of grey. 

Something next to his door caught your attention though. It was a pile of clothes. Your clothes you realized with a start, as well as a handwritten note on it. You picked up the note and read the message written on it in neat handwriting. 

**_Heard the shower running, thought you might appreciate a new change of clothes._ **

**_~ JRH_ **

You smiled to yourself and put the note down on the bedside table and began changing. After you were all done and you hung the towel back in the restroom, you read over the note again and got into bed. You were still smiling as you fell asleep in the comfort of a real bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are we getting closer to answers or are there just more questions?   
> Also, Ryan being a caring crew member after saying that he didn't care... Hmm... Yeah right, Ry... We definitely believe you.   
> Anyways, hope you guys are enjoying the story! Let me know if you have any suggestions and don't forget to kudos if you're enjoying it!   
> Love you all ~ Aya <3


	12. Dash of Revelation with your order of Betrayal

You wake up in a real bed and snuggle up into the pillows. The blanket is weighing down onto you and you don’t want to leave the comfort. Opening your eyes, you adjust to the darkness of the room you’re in. It took you a second to remember that you were in Ryan’s room. Looking around, you didn’t see a trace of him. Your phone was plugged in on the bedside table next to the earlier note and you don’t remember plugging it in before you fell asleep. 

Finally getting out of bed, you decided that you must have overstayed your welcome at this point. Picking up your phone, you winced at many missed calls and unread text messages. Ignoring those for now, you realized that it was quite late. Or early, depending on how you look at it. At 4 in the morning, the Los Santos streets outside still basked in the city’s glow. Billboards, street signs, and traffic lights lid up the streets as brightly as the sun light. 

Walking out of the room, you looked around and to your surprise, heard hushed voices inside Michael’s room. Michael was talking and it followed by an unmistakable female giggle. It sounded like they were whispering and deciding to not get caught eavesdropping again, you quickly made your way into the living room. 

The sight before you took you by surprise. Jeremy was sitting on an armchair, watching television that was almost muted, with subtitles displayed on some Netflix show you didn’t recognize. Next to him on the couch was a sleeping form of Ryan. Walking over closer to them, Jeremy noticed your arrival and paused his movie.  _ Umbrella Academy? _ You heard of the show, but you have yet to watch it.

Jeremy waved at you and motioned for you to come over. You came closer and sat on the armchair’s handle, relaxing next to your best friend. The two of you haven’t had a chance to talk yet, since the outburst in the med bay, but it seemed like there wasn’t any bad blood between the two of you already.

“Why are you awake?” You whispered to Jeremy, looking over at Ryan to make sure you didn’t wake him up. 

“Was asleep for long enough. Plus, this one here,” he pointed towards Ryan, “was being stubborn about going to sleep himself, so I told him I’m not leaving until he gets some rest. And then the show was too good for me to leave.” Jeremy explained, shrugging at the end like it was nothing out of the ordinary. 

“Why is he on the couch?” You asked, examining Ryan’s sleeping body. He was fully relaxed to the point you haven’t seen from him before. He was on his side, his arms crossed under his head, his breathing steady and mouth slightly open. 

“You were asleep.” Jeremy said as a matter of fact. “He didn’t want to wake you up after everything you’ve gone through. He might be stubborn about it, but he cares about you. We all do. You’re part of our family now.”

“The big and scary Vagabond is sleeping on the couch because he didn’t want to wake me up?” You mused, yet feeling slightly guilty.  _ I don’t care _ , Ryan’s voice echoed through your head. Was he lying to Jack or to Jeremy? Jeremy was his closest friend here though, wasn’t he? 

“Heh, I know, right. He acts tough. He’s really a softie. Though don’t ever tell him I told you that, or your best friend may get skewered with some knives and hung up like a pinata for everyone to see.” Jeremy chuckled lightly, though he did throw a panicked look at Ryan to make sure that he’s still asleep, so you weren’t entirely sure whether he was joking or not.

“Since when are you my best friend?” You joked instead.

“Y/N, you’re hurting my feelings.” Jeremy put his hands over his heart and pantomimed getting hurt, with a pained expression on his face. Not able to hold back the laughter, you smiled at him, ruffling the top of his head. “Shut up, unless you want to wake him up. Ryan is quite a nightmare when he doesn’t get his beauty rest.”

“Oh am I now?” Jeremy and you both jumped at the sound of Ryan’s voice, still laced with sleep. He was still in his previous position, but his eyes were trained on the two of you. Jeremy and you froze like two deeps caught in the headlights. “Glad to see you’re both feeling better though.” Ryan grumbled and started to slowly sit up.

“Morning.” You waved, not entirely sure what else to do.

“Mornin’. Hope you enjoyed the comfort of the bed. It definitely beats the couch.” Ryan’s eyes burrowed into you as if searching for it. You weren’t sure what or whether he found what he was looking for when he glanced away and stretched.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Thank you, though. You could have woken me up.”

“No, you looked too peaceful asleep. Didn’t see you like that at the med bay and didn’t want to be the one to wake you up from that. Plugged your phone in too, by the way. It was in the med bay.”

“Oh. Thank you! Means a lot.” You smiled and then felt stupid for a cheesy smile on your face and turned away. Jeremy was looking at the two of you curiously, but his face was a mask that you still couldn’t fully break through, even after knowing him for three years. 

“Well, I guess you really are part of the Fake AH Crew now. I don’t remember the last time a newbie saw me asleep as soon as you did.” Ryan smirked and winked at the last part. Not entirely sure what the implications of that were, you just nodded.

Looking back at your first impression of Ryan, it was weird to think of how opposite you viewed the man in front of you now. Before, you saw him as completely terrifying, wanting nothing to do with him and being as far away from him as possible. Now… You weren’t entirely sure what you thought of Ryan now. He was still terrifying, but in a different way, in different aspects. It was terrifying how easily his mood could change, how it was completely impossible for you to tell what he was thinking or which emotions he displayed. He was intimidating and off putting, but in a way that still made you want to try and befriend him and you couldn’t fully understand what your mind and body thought of that. He went from a person who ignored you, unless he had a gun pointed in your face, to a guy who felt comfortable enough around you to let you see him sleep, who offered his room when you needed a nap, and would constantly smirk and wink at you for no reason. He was a confusing human being…

Before you could get too caught up in your thoughts, you heard a loud moan come somewhere from the directions of the rooms and you had an idea of who’s room the feral sound just came from. It was followed by several more and a faint squeak of the bed. For a second, nobody spoke or knew what to say, until a particularly loud “Michael!” echoed through the penthouse and finally all three of you broke down into a laughter fit. It was probably loud enough to wake the rest of the crew up, if they haven’t already been woken up by the obvious activity coming from their neighbor. 

“Fucking Christ, Mogar.” Ryan sneered, catching his breath in between laughter.

“Does he not realize that none of us will stop bringing this up for like a month, now?” Jeremy chuckled.

“Must be a worthy fuck.” You pointed out and Jeremy laughed harder. Ryan however looked at you with a puzzling look. You suddenly realized that the two of you haven’t really had too many chances to just… talk. Aside from those first few days when you went to a party and when you were lounging in the penthouse with the crew, you never really talked much, just the two of you. Sitting here right now with Jeremy and Ryan felt natural. Joking around, enjoying ourselves. It was refreshing. 

The three of you decided to ignore the lewd noises coming from Michael’s room. Ryan and Jeremy continued watching Umbrella Academy from where Jeremy had it paused. You were partially watching and partially going through the missed text messages you had. The groupchat Girl Power was blowing up earlier. Alanah, Jackie, and Kdin all asking Lindsay about her new man and asking for your own opinion.  _ When was the last time that I really talked to Lindsay? Has it been long enough for me to not even know of one of my closest friends getting a boyfriend?  _

After sending some type of vague response to the group chat, you looked at who else texted you. Sure enough, there was Lindsay who texted you 48 times. Ashley send you a couple of text messages. You even got some messages from Miles saying the company misses you. After scrolling through your phone for another several moments, you heard the door unlock. A very tired looking Gavin came out, still in his pjs. 

“Sup Gav.” You offered.

“Top of the fucking morning to you three.” Gavin looked pissed. He walked past you three straight into the kitchen.

The three of you looked around between each other, trying to decide whether to address him or not. After a moment, Gavin walked back in and plopped down on the couch next to Ryan with a cup of hot tea in his hands. He sipped it slowly and looked at the tv.

“Gav?” Ryan looked at him, concerned.

“You three were awake. You didn’t have to wake up to those bloody sounds and have your entire room shake, because your neighbor COULDN’T KEEP IT IN THEIR PANTS!” He yelled the last bit. As much as you were trying to hold it together, all three of you broke into laughter again. Although, as soon as Gavin gave you a look that you could only describe as murderous, you all shut your mouths.

After another several long minutes, you finally realized that the voices quieted down. You asked Jeremy to pause the movie. The four of you listened intently.

“They done?” Ryan asked.

“Well, now we know for how long Michael lasts.” You say.

“Oh, we’ve known that… for far too long now.” Jeremy informed you.

“Oh.”

After another couple of minutes, you heard the door open and Michael walked out and paused when he saw the four of you in the living room, staring at him. He simply shrugged and walked into the kitchen. When he came out with some water and a small wave to the four of you, he walked back towards his room, but you didn’t hear him close the door. 

“I’ll call you.” The sound was muffled by the walls and you couldn’t tell whether that was Michael speaking or his lady friend.

When the two of them came out again to do the walk of shame, your jaw hit the floor. You caught her eye and she stopped in her tracks as well. The two of you looking at each other, silence dragging on as no one dared to speak.

“Okay, what the fuck?” You asked finally.

“I have the exact same question.” Lindsay asked as she came closer to you.

“Michael is the new man in your life?” You asked her.

“What in the world are you doing with half the Fake AH Crew in their safehouse?” Lindsay asked instead, ignoring your earlier question.

“How do you know that this is the Fake AH Crew?” You asked and you heard Ryan and Gavin get up from the couch behind you.

“I never told you.” Michael said behind Lindsay, looking at her intently.

Lindsay said nothing, staring only at you, like there was no one else in the room.

“This. This is why you quit. You DID join a gang! The Fakes? Really? Couldn’t have come up with someone better?” Lindsay accused you.

“Yeah like whom? The Roosters?” Jeremy asked, suddenly by your side.

“Jeremy… I recognize you. You were in photos on Y/N’s phone. Y/N, how long have you been part of this crew?” Lindsay looked at you, accusingly. Her forehead in an angry scowl. 

“Why don’t you tell me that,  _ friend. _ ” You were scowling at Lindsay. “You knew this whole time, didn’t you. You had to see it for yourself. You wouldn’t have ever agreed to go to the guy’s place. I know you. You always invite them over to your apartment. You had to come. You had to make sure, you bitch.” You threw venom at her. Michael looked genuinely hurt by the declaration you just made. The hurt was very quickly replaced by anger.

“You don’t know shit about me.” Lindsay defended.

“You’re right. I don’t. So who the fuck are you?” You looked Lindsay up and down and seeing a stranger in front of you.

“What did you do to the flashdrive that you picked up?” Ryan asked. “What’s at Mojito Inn.?” You noticed him going for the pocket of his pants.  _ Does he sleep with knives too?  _

“Wouldn’t you like to know, boy?” Lindsay mocked, looking directly at Ryan and not even batting an eye. You heard Ryan growl and you noticed him take out, and flip open with ease, a butterfly knife. Lindsay looked over at it and yet still glanced over at him with a bored expression on her face.

Turning back to face you, she sighed. “I don’t want to pick a fight right now, alright? I’ll see you around Y/N. Bye boys!” She waved and blew a kiss in their direction. She walked past you, brushing on her shoulder over your injured one. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did that hurt?” She whispered in your ear. “Next time, I’ll aim better.”

You spun around as she walked past them and into the elevator. “Is no one stopping her?” You looked around the room at the various pissed off expressions.

“We’ll see her again, I’m sure.” Ryan announced, flipping his butterfly knife shut again and stowing it in his pocket.

“So, why are you shagging our number one enemy?” Jeremy asked, looking at Michael.

“Geoff said ‘get information any way possible’.” Michael shrugged, “This was  _ a  _ way. Plus, she’s hot.”

You stared at Michael, mouth open wide. You stormed past him and straight towards your room. You heard him call out your name, but Jeremy held him back, telling him to let you go. You walked into your room and slammed it shut, not caring if you were going to wake up the rest of the crew, you were sure they were all awake anyways. You paced back and forth, fuming and trying to collect your thoughts. After several minutes you heard a soft knock on your door.

“Michael, if that’s you, I have no words to say to you right now.” You growled out, but before you could even make it to the door, Jeremy popped his head in. “Oh. It’s you.”

He walked in, closing the door behind me. “It’s me. How are you doing?”

“One of my closest friends, whom I told literally everything about myself, is apparently a psychopath who tried to kill me, been stalking me, and is apparently a part of a fucking gang! So yeah, I’m doing just peachy, thanks for checking in Jeremy.” You continued to pace back and forth and were forcibly stopped when Jeremy grabbed both of your shoulders and you forced you to look at him.

“Calm down. Sit down.” Jeremy pointed to your bed. You wanted to laugh in his face.

“Calm down? Calm down?! Jeremy, how the fuck do you want me to stay calm during this? It was one thing joining the Fakes, I knew my life would change, but this? This… This is a whole other level of crazy. The world turned upside down!”

“I know, look I know. I’m sorry I got you into all of this, but there is something that you have to know. Please, sit down.”

You finally took a deep breath and sat down on the edge of the bed, looking up at Jeremy. “Well, I’m sitting down. What?”

“The Roosters have been after you for a while already. Not just since you joined the Fakes, not since you started at that tech firm. Before that. We found this out recently, so we have not been keeping it from you for long, but we’ve been trying to confirm it for sure before we told you this.” Jeremy took a second to make sure you were following along with him. 

You thought of where he was going and coming up blank. You looked at him questioningly, scowling at him, hoping that he’d hurry up and just tell you what’s going on. His next words shook you to the core.

“The Roosters, Lindsay specifically, killed your parents. She was the Assassin. But she wasn’t there to kill them. You were her target.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well shit... Thoughts on this?
> 
> I know, I know, more cliffhangers.
> 
> Is our Vagabond going soft?
> 
> Lindsay the wildcard Tuggey is evil?
> 
> Where is this story even going?
> 
> Let me know what you guys think about everything that just happened and got revealed in this chapter and as always, if you enjoyed, be sure to leave kudos! Love you all! ~ Aya <3


	13. Emotional Wreck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When everything comes crashing down, who do you go to for emotional support?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!!! ALERT!!! PLEASE READ!!!  
> SUICIDAL THOUGHTS! HATEFUL THINKING! TOXIC BEHAVIOR! PLEASE KNOW THAT SOME OF THE BEHAVIOR DISPLAYED IN THIS CHAPTER MAY CAUSE HARM TO YOU OR YOUR LOVED ONES. PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION. IF SUICIDAL THOUGHTS TRIGGER YOU, SKIP TILL YOU SEE ~~~~ THESE LINES.

There were too many emotions. Too many thoughts. Too much. Not only did someone you considered to be your closest friend betray you, killed your family, took everything from you, but also… they weren’t meant to die. You were… There were so many nights where you were curled up on your bed, sobbing, asking whatever mighty being that might be up there ‘why?’ So many unheard prayers for you to take their place and they weren’t even meant to die. From the very beginning it was meant to be you. 

Guilt.

One of the most overwhelming emotions. It was consuming you. Guilt that you didn’t save your parents when you had the chance. Guilt that you haven’t managed to find the killer for all these years and they were right. In front. Of your eyes. This whole time they were prancing around, taunting you. Guilt that you haven’t seen the evil behind Lindsay’s eyes. Guilt that you were too blinded by fake smiles and pointless laughter. Guilt that you have drowned yourself in alcohol and weed with her for so many weekends in a row, trying to escape the terrible pain of your past, and yet you were too blind to see that you were carrying it along with you. Guilt that you were so god damn stupid to not even consider those around you as suspects. That you immediately assumed it was some big, scary Assassin with a grudge against your family. How could you suspect a sweet, friendly girl who offered to be your friend. Who tricked you, tricked the cops, tricked everyone around her to believe that she’s as innocent as she looks, and then she went ahead and stabbed you in the back. And shot you in your shoulder.

Rage.

You felt so angry. At Lindsay, for sure, but mostly at yourself. You felt angry that you could do nothing right in your miserable fucking life. You couldn’t even die so that your parents could live. And although it may be selfish to think that way, that it’ll bring pain and suffering to your parents the way it brought pain and suffering to you, but at the moment you didn’t care. You didn’t fucking care how awful they would feel about their daughter getting sniped in the head, because at least they would be breathing and not 6 feet below in the cold, damp ground. And those thoughts only brought you more rage and sadness, because you wanted them alive, but you also didn’t want them to be hurting, but at least they would be fucking alive. You didn’t care about death. Fuck, you almost took your own life when you heard the news the first time. You danced dangerously close to it. Literally danced. On a roof. On the edge of the roof. Feeling too much like a fucking coward to even off yourself properly. None of the people in your life would have been affected. You didn’t have too many friends at the time. It was before you got your previous job. It was before you met Lindsay, or Jeremy, or any of the Fakes. No one would have mourned. You would have saved all of them a whole bunch of worry if they would have never known you existed. You could have done Lindsay’s job for her. One. Small. Fucking. Step. That would have been all it took, but no. You had to chicken out. You had to go and make a fucking human being out of yourself. You had to go and get people attached to you. Get people who consider you their best friend, part of their family. You were one step away from seeing your parents again in, whatever the twisted thing this was that was the other side, but you fucked it all up for everybody.

Pain.

You felt pain. Pain so strong that it cut you deep like a knife. Pain that made your insides want to burst out and escaped this terrible feeling. You felt it in the pit of your stomach, growing outwards, claiming your heart and squeezing it tight, making you want to cry out, to wail, to sob. Yet you sit still and observe its pattern. You observe the hold that pain has on you and you savour every second of it, because you know that you deserve it. Every single second of this horrendous feeling. Your loathsome existence should have ended 8 fucking years ago. EIGHT YEARS of living on this Earth while your contract was already up. Eight years since you buried all of these feelings, were finally able to accept that your parents were gone, that you were an orphan, and here they all were. Sent straight back at you, eight years later. You weren’t meant to be 32. You weren’t meant to enjoy your life, go to parties, have a job, have mindblowing sex, join a fucking crew. That life wasn’t yours to take. The life you currently live was all in exchange for what your parents have lost. Would they be proud of where you were? Living peacefully with no justice served for their cold blood murder? Being buddy-buddy with their killer? 

Hate.

You hated yourself. You hated the life you were given. You hated every single breath you took. You hated the fact that you were alive. You hated the fact that you cheated death for 8 fucking years. You hated Lindsay. You hated that she has ever appeared in your life. You hated how close the two of you got. You hated that she was able to manipulate you and wrap you around her finger like the most submissive toy. You hated Jeremy. You hated that he had to go and spring this news on you out of nowhere. You hated that he figured this out at all, when you spent years actively searching. You hated that you knew he wasn’t lying. You hated how caring he was to you when he delivered the news and then promptly left to let you process. You hated how you knew he asked the rest of the crew to give you space. You hated that even when shit like this happens and you drop this on top of his crew’s head, he’s still your best friend. You hated that you still fucking loved him even when you wanted to hate him. You hated the Fakes. You hated how they just took you in and started acting all friendly around you, like they haven’t pointed guns at you the moment you first walked in. You hated how they took your baggage with them and tried helping you with all the fucking issues that you have. You hated that they offered you a home and brought you in with loving arms. You hated them, you hated them, you hated…

~~~~

You took a deep breath. A long sharp inhale that didn’t stop until your lungs burned and were begging for release. And then you exhaled for just as long. You were too close to the edge. You were too close to slipping again. Too close to taking up a blade again. You had to get out of here. You haven’t moved an inch since Jeremy told you the news. Since you let the information sink in. Since he left your room almost an hour ago now. You haven’t moved, haven’t said a word, haven’t shed a single tear.

You had to leave. You had to go to someone. You had to do something. You didn’t want to see Jeremy right now, because he knew you. Knew you too well. He would know what to say, how to make you feel better, how to make sure that you were okay and you didn’t need that. Not right now. You weren’t ready to feel okay yet. You weren’t ready to feel like you weren’t the problem. You weren’t ready for Jeremy. You needed someone else. Someone who didn’t know you as well. Someone who could take your mind off things without doing it well enough that it disappeared. You needed someone to be a distraction.

~~~~

You knocked three times. Soft, but determined sound of your knuckles hitting the wooden door. For a second nothing happened and you assumed he was asleep. You almost turned away, you almost let out a relieved sigh, but no. He opened the door. Of course he did. You turned to face him and were greeted by a shirtless figure, in just his sweats, looking down curiously at you. His hair was a mess, his eyes sleepy, his head turned to the side, eyeing you, not sure of what to make of you. For a second nothing happened. For a second the two of you just stared at each other unsure of what to do. For a second, your brain short circuited and you were openly staring at the person in front of you. At a… very attractive person in front of you.

You never considered Ryan as anything but terrifying and intimidating. You were too focused on making sure that you didn’t piss him off and he didn’t kill you to notice how stunning he looked. Now, when time seemed to slow down, that was the only feature you noticed. You didn’t think of him as the most intimidating person you’ve ever met, anymore. Instead you were gawking at him, looking him up and down, checking him out, right in front of his eyes. 

“Can I help you? It’s 5 am.” He asked, his voice deep and doused in sleep. Fuck, that voice was suddenly doing things to you.

“You have knives, right?” You asked instead, ignoring the warm feeling at your core.

“You’re kidding right? Did you really just ask the Vagabond if he has knives?” Ryan smirked at you. He moved to the side and waved you in. “Y/N, you are offending me by even asking that question. Let me show you my beautiful collection.”

You walked into Ryan’s room again, his decor slowly becoming familiar to you. You looked around, his bed was a mess of black sheets tossed every which way. The bathroom door was closed. There was a computer you haven’t noticed before on his desk. What looked like some type of journal was open with notes written all over it on the desk, next to his computer. Ryan moved to his wardrobe and opened it up. He had shelves inside, to the left of all his clothing. You caught sight of the famous Vagabond blue leather jacket with white stripes. The heist outfit, as Jeremy once explained. 

At the drawers, Ryan opened one and it had all different types of ties and bowties inside. He took one tie in particular and pulled on it. The tie seemed to have been attacked to the bottom of the drawer and it lifted up. What was underneath took your breath away. Knives. Of all different kinds and sizes. For every type of cut you’d desire.

There were several you recognized, and a lot more that you’ve never seen before. They were of different colors, most tinted black. Some with skulls on them, some had skulls at the end of the handle, all were pretty. There were some machetes, army survival knives, different types of Kabars, what looked like some fucking swords, switchblades, butterflies, throwing knives, and a lot more that looked like they must have been illegal.

You came over closer to examine each with care. You looked over at Ryan who was eyeing you carefully, asking him for a silent permission. He nodded and you picked up a knife that had a pretty rainbow coloring to it.

“Stainless steel titanium rainbow butterfly knife.” Ryan stated. “Careful with those if you don’t know how to operate one.”

You looked at the knife in your hand, surprised slightly by the weight of it. You weren’t even sure how to begin opening it, so you didn’t try. Ryan took it out of your hand and expertly tossed it around in his hand, throwing it up in the air, and catching it with a blade pointing at you.  _ Showoff.  _

“Here, let me show you something cool and easy.” Ryan said, facing the knife so you can see what he was doing. “This is called double rollout.”

Ryan held the handle in his right hand, shifting it so he only grabbed to the right part of the handle. He swung the blade outwards and twisted the handle in his hand. The back side of the blade hit his hand and he pushed it back, opening his fingers to catch the second part of the handle, blade pointing outwards. Doing the same motions, backwards, he closed the knife.

“Wanna try?” He asked.

“You’ll have to walk me through it again.” You said, sure that you were going to fuck this up.

Ryan took your right hand in his and placed the knife the way he was holding it earlier. He stood behind you, pressing your back to him and towering over you. He was watching your movements closely. Going through the motions with you slowly, several times, you were starting to pick it up. Ryan let you do it on your own and let go of your hand. Ryan took a step back and your body ached from the loss of contact. You focused on your hand motion and managed to open it correctly without cutting yourself. You tried to do the same to close it and were surprised when you were successful. 

You looked over at Ryan, grinning, and saw something in his eyes that you haven’t recognized. His eyes were no longer the pretty blue color they usually were, there was darkness in them. His pupils were dilated and he was watching you hungrily. As soon as it was there, it was gone though, and you had to wonder whether you imagined it.

“So as much as I love every chance I get to show off knives, want to tell me why exactly you wanted to see them at 5 am today? Why couldn't this have waited till morning? We’re all laying low right now, we don’t have many places to be at anyways.” Ryan took the butterfly knife out of your hand and carefully stowed it back.

“Because I was suicidal earlier and I needed a distraction before my thoughts took over.” You explained nonchalantly.

Ryan’s head whipped to look at you. A range of emotions displaying themselves on his face. You couldn’t pinpoint any, except for what looked like anger.  _ Great, I pissed him off.  _ His shoulders tensed up.

“Why?” His voice was stone cold. The earlier intimidation factor has returned.

You sighed miserably and sat on the edge of his bed. “Because of everything. Because me, feeling like this, isn’t new. Because… I don’t know what I’m still doing alive.” You didn’t dare look at Ryan, knowing he was probably glaring at you, studying you. You heard him close the drawer and then the closet. The bed dipped next to you and the two of you sat for a moment in silence. It wasn’t an awkward silence though. It felt… comforting. You appreciated it.

“You know… You know you can talk to me, right? With everything that has been going on, I honestly don’t blame you for feeling like this. It’s a lot. You have every right to feel like this. It’s okay to not be okay. Just please don’t do anything that you might regret.” Ryan was speaking quietly. You looked up to face him and winced at the amount of pain that was in his eyes.  _ He lost someone to this.  _ Ryan was so stoic most of the time, that seeing him like this pulled at your heart strings.

You kept quiet as he continued, “I’m sorry that this is something you have to deal with. The loss of your parents… There’s an empty space in your heart that will never heal… No matter how long it takes, but recovering from it. Continuing to live your life, the way that you had. That’s strength... not many people have been able to find it.” He sighed heavily and looked up at you. There were tears in the corner of his eyes. You never thought you’d ever see the Vagabo- no. Ryan. In such a vulnerable state.

The two of you sat in silence, letting it drag on, both reflecting on your feelings. Neither wanting to be alone, both craving the company of the other. Neither one of you wanted to break the silence, to end the night. 

“May I… stay here, tonight?” You whispered. It sounded so soft, so quiet that you weren’t sure if even you heard it. 

However, Ryan responded immediately, “Of course.” You sighed out a breath of relief, looking up at him. “May I hug you?” He asked.

You nodded and he gently placed his arms around you. You brought your own arms around his chest and let the emotions of the day overwhelm you. You sobbed quietly while Ryan held you closer, hugging you tightly. 

After you managed to calm down and wiped away the remainder of your tears, you went to the restroom and cleaned yourself up. You came back to Ryan laying flat on his back, looking up at the ceiling. He seemed to be deep in thought as he hadn't noticed you. When you got back on the bed, he looked over at you as if noticing you there for the first time. The two of you just stared at each other for a second, not sure what to say. You decided to get comfortable, so you laid down next to Ryan, turning on your side to face him.

“What are you thinking about?” You asked him.

“You.” Was his blatant response. You waited for him to continue, but no explanation followed.

“Me?” You asked, shooting one of your eyebrows up.

“You.” Ryan repeated. He rolled onto his side to face you as well. You were so close… Your eyes flickered over to his lips and then back up to his eyes. He drew in a quick breath, but he was so damn hard to read. Soon enough he closed his eyes and whispered, “Goodnight, Y/N. Sweet dreams.”

You rolled over so that your back was facing him and closed your eyes as well. “Night Ryan.”

He draped the blankets over the two of you and shuffled closer to you. Soon enough you were both asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you or your loved ones ever thought of or attempted suicide, please seek help. It is not this taboo thing that people claim it to be. It's normal and encouraged. A lot of thoughts that have been displayed in this chapter were brought in from personal experience... Therapy, or even just opening up to a trusted friend, really does help. 
> 
> Chapter 13 was very hard for me to write, because too much of it became method writing (pulling from personal experiences, though very different to the character, still very harmful)  
> Please be careful and stay safe. I love you all very much. ~ Aya.


	14. Fists Do Most Of The Talking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why can't the Fakes just have one normal, relaxing day?

When you woke up, Ryan was already gone. Blankets were carefully drawn over you, no sight of him anywhere in the room. You got out of bed and stretched carefully. Giving a room one last glance, you put your shoes on and carefully sneaked out. As you opened the door to look if anyone was in the hallway, you accidentally slammed the door in a figure about to knock.

“Shit!” Jeremy exclaimed, touching his nose. “Ry, careful, for fucks sake.”

“I’m so sorry!” You immediately exclaimed and Jeremy’s attention snapped to you. 

“Y/N? What were you up to in there? Is Ryan there?” Jeremy asked, looking you up and down, narrowing his eyes at you. You suddenly realized what you must have looked like. Sneaking out of Ryan’s room, still in yesterday’s clothes.

“This is not what it looks like!” You immediately try to defend yourself.

“Right…” Jeremy didn’t seem convinced. You were about to say more, but you heard a familiar, low voice come from down the hall.

“Hey Rimmy, what’s up?” Ryan didn’t seem to notice you behind his door yet, as you have suddenly realized that you haven’t left his room yet. You walked around the door frame and closed it behind you. 

“V, wanna explain this?” Jeremy looked at Ryan, anger evident on his face.

“What is there to explain?” Ryan asked, not making either of you seem any more innocent.

“Nothing happened!” You defended yourself.

“Don’t take me for a fucking idiot, Y/N!” Jeremy snapped at you, his eyes still glaring daggers at Ryan. “Look, I thought we were friends! Don’t go around and screw my best friend behind my back and then try and lie about it to my face!” Jeremy growled and you winced at how loud his voice was, the sound echoing through the penthouse. You were sure that everyone else was eavesdropping from somewhere.

“I don’t have to defend myself to you. I don’t have to explain my actions to you either. For what it’s worth, Y/N already told you that nothing happened. So drop it.” Ryan said with a dangerously calm voice.

“Don’t you fucking patronize me with that tone of yours, Haywood!” Jeremy fumed. You were uncomfortably standing to the side, not sure whether you should intervene.

“I don’t get why you’re so fussed about. You never gave a shit who I have or have not fucked before, which is a have not in this case. Fuck it, I don’t see why I’m explaining myself to you. Maybe, if you were a better fucking friend to Y/N, she would have came to you last night, instead of me.” Ryan challenged and tried moving past Jeremy, to get into his room, but Jeremy threw him against his door. You screamed and stepped back, closer to your own room.

“Don’t. Disrespect. Our. Friendship. Again.” Jeremy accented each word, holding Ryan firmly against the door. Jeremy might not have the height on Ryan, but fuck did he know how to be intimidating.

“Let me go.” Ryan said, looking rather bored.

“Tell me the truth and I’ll let you go.” Jeremy pushed more, bringing his forearm against Ryan’s neck.

“He is telling the Jeremy, what the fuck!?” You screamed at him, unable to take any more of the view in front of you.

“Don’t try and defend me, Y/N. He’s not worth the time.” Ryan said, his face completely lacking any sort of emotion.

“Shut the fuck up, V!” Jeremy growled.

“Why? Cause you’re starting to realize that this whole argument is pointless and you have nothing to be angry about and that you’re acting like a child. Oh, sorry, is that why your nickname is Lil J? Should I get you a pacifier too, so you can calm the fuck down?” Ryan challenged, a hint of a smile on his face.  _ Is he enjoying provoking him? _

Whatever he was trying to do, he did it well, because Jeremy brought his hand back and punched Ryan directly in the face, the back of his head hitting the door. Blood began pouring from his nose.

“Well, now you fucked up.” Ryan said, becoming suddenly serious, his eyes flaring with anger. He threw Jeremy off of him effortlessly, rounding up his right fist in a semi-circular hook punch, connecting with Jeremy’s temple. He brought his left hand in a quick uppercut, but Jeremy was ready that time and blocked him. Jeremy bolo punched Ryan, from an odd angle, hitting him directly in the jaw.

“Stop it!” You screamed, trying to separate the two men. “Guys! Quit it!” You tried again, but they ignored you.

Ryan grabbed on to Jeremy’s shoulder and before Jeremy could successfully shake him off, Ryan brought his knee up and connected it with Jeremy’s stomach. Jeremy let out a grunt as he clenched to his abdomen. Jeremy tried to punch Ryan again, but Ryan was faster and he crossed his punch with a punch of his own, connecting it to Jeremy’s chin. 

You continued to scream at them to stop, crying and clutching your sides. You saw the rest of the crew, slowly get out of their various rooms and watching the action in front of them. They were all grimacing at the fight in front of them, but none of them looked to eager to intervene.  _ Screw this.  _

You ran up to Jeremy’s side, getting in between him and Ryan. Ryan was too stunned by your sudden presence as he was mid swing and didn’t stop his hand in time, before it connected to your temple. You fell to your side, tripping over Jeremy’s legs. You laid down on the ground, your head swimming as you tried to level your breathing and clear your eyes from tears. 

“Fuck!” You heard Ryan swear. Suddenly, Jeremy was there, checking your head.

You heard a lot of curses and the whole crew was swirling around you within seconds. You finally managed to stand up and Jack asked if you’d like to go lay down in the med bay. You convinced her and the rest of the crew that you were alright and wanted some alone time. You walked into your room, but as you were trying to close the door behind you, someone stopped it. You turned around to find Jeremy slip into your room, closing the door behind you.

“You never know when to stop, do you?” You asked, becoming more and more angry at him. 

“What the fuck were you thinking?” He shouted back at you. The loudness of his voice caused a headache and you winced.

“You two would have fucking beat each other dead if I wouldn’t have intervened!”

“No, we would have been fine! Not the first time V and I fought, not going to be the last time. We’re grown ups, we can make our own decisions, without you mendling in them!”

“Oh really? So what am I then? Am I not a grown up? Can I not make my own decisions? You’re such a fucking hypocrite, Jeremy! Do I need to remind you, why the two of you even started fighting in the first place?”

“Well I’m sorry for being protective of you, Y/N! You’re like a sister to me for fucks sake!”

“I don’t need your protection! I can choose who to fuck and who to not! And since when have you started doubting my word for truth? If I told you that nothing fucking happened, nothing. Fucking. Happened!” You were right in his face, pointing your finger into his chest with every word. He swatted your hand away and took a step closer.

“You  _ do  _ need my protection. If you haven’t noticed, there’s a fucking Assassin out to get you.” Jeremy said through gritted teeth.

“You think that I haven’t  _ noticed?  _ If you have to know what the fuck I was doing at Ryan’s so badly, then fine! Let me fucking enlighten you. I was suicidal again, yesterday. After everything I did to work towards getting past that, I had a regression yesterday. The same thoughts I always used to get, came back. Stronger. Temptation tasting so fucking sweet. If I wouldn’t have gone to Ryan yesterday, I would have taken up the blades again. I came to Ryan and asked to see his knife collection. I had to be close to that sharpness, but also in a place where I knew I couldn’t do anything about it. So yeah, I went to Ryan. I was too fucking scared to return to my own room and be all by myself at night, not knowing what the terrors of the dark would bring about, so I asked to stay over. Like both of us have now told you, nothing fucking happened. We slept. In the same bed, together, but not… Slept together. God fucking damn it, you know what I mean! Are my answers to your satisfaction? Is this what you fucking wanted to hear?” You screamed in Jeremy’s face, turning away and stomping towards your bed. You stood in a corner of your room, trying to regain your composure.

“I didn’t know… I’m sorry.” Jeremy whispered.

“Save your apologies, J. I don’t need them. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get changed and be by myself, so please. Kindly, get the fuck out of my room.” You said, not bothering looking at Jeremy. He hesitated for a second, before you heard quick footsteps and the door closing behind him. You sighed heavily and sat down on the floor with you back against the wall and cried. You stayed there for several minutes, before undressing and hopping into the shower.

~~~~

“We need to track her down. Have you tried calling Miles, by any chance?” Gavin looked at you, while still typing at his computer. You were sitting on a bean bag chair that he had in his room, looking at your own computer’s screen. The two of you were trying to pinpoint Lindsay’s location for the past half an hour with little success so far.

“I haven’t called him since I quit… How will he take me calling him now?” You asked.

“Well, you can text him instead? Ease into it?” Gavin suggestion. You shrugged and decided to go with it. No point in stressing over it, he apparently knew every little thing I did anyways.

_ Hey, Miles! _

_ OMG Y/N! What’s up? How have you been? _

_ It’s been… crazy. How are you, how’s the crew? _

_ We’re all good. Missing you and Lindsay, of course! _

_ What do you mean, missing me and Lindsay? Where’s Lindsay? _

_ She didn’t tell you? She quit the day after you did. _

_ What?? No, she didn’t tell me. Do you know where she’s at now? _

_ Weird, thought you two were close enough for her to tell you this. And I have no clue, sorry. _

_ Yeah… I thought we were close too… _

_ Hey, don’t blame her. She got a new job, I’m sure she’s just busy getting accustomed to it. I’m sure she was gonna tell you any day now. _

_ Well, I gtg now Miles, but let’s talk later? _

_ Of course! It’s always great to hear from you, Y/N! How’s your new job treating you? _

_ So far, so good! TTYL, Miles! _

_ C ya :)  _

“Lindsay quit the tech firm the day after I did.” You announced to Gavin who looked at you, shocked.

“What?”

“Yeah, I had no idea. She told me she was still working there, the last time we talked. Before… before the store robbery… She must have known somehow, she was waiting with those SUVs. How did she know we were doing it?”

“Tracking the GPS on your phone with a phone call is quite easy, what were you doing when you picked up?”

“Trevor and I were in a car… Could she have overheard us talking?”

“Or put a GPS tracker on your phone. Knew where you’ll be, knew where and when to strike.”

“That just makes no sense to me… How would she know we were pulling a job?”

“The windows…” Gavin said and started furiously typing away at his keyboard.

“The windows? What are you talking about?” 

“The windows! We were talking in the living room, not our heist room like we usually do when we plan a job. We were in the living room, because you were still new! The windows are surrounding it! Your parents, they were killed by a sniper, right?” You nodded. “She must have been spying from one of the buildings. Fucking lip readers.” Gavin muttered the last bit, almost to himself. He brought up a surveillance footage of the surrounding area of the penthouse.

“Okay, so you’re saying that Lindsay was on the roof of one of the buildings, lip reading what we were discussing?” You asked, trying to keep up. You computer laid abandoned on the bean bag chair as you were standing over Gavin’s shoulder, looking at all the different camera angles.

Gavin nodded and typed in the date and time of your job briefing. The two of you scanned the rooftops of all the buildings, finding nothing there. You then moved to watch all the top floor windows of the buildings closely, slowly flipping through the time, frame by frame. After another 20 minutes of going back and forth through the footage, Gavin paused.

“There!” He pointed to a window. You squinted, trying to see what he was looking at. “Look at it in these frames.” Gavin slowed down the frames further, pressing play as the video continued in slow motion. For a second there was nothing, but then you saw what Gavin was pointing to. A very quick sun reflection off of a glass. Small and barely noticeable.  _ Scope reflection.  _

“She knew where the penthouse was…” You exclaimed. Your hands were becoming more and more sweaty.

“The bug only deactivated when it got close enough to the penthouse. Up until a certain floor, she already knew the building location. Fuck, I have to update our system.” Gavin cursed. The two of you watched the footage several more times, zooming in on that particular spot. It was now unmistakable, unmissable. Lindsay was ahead of them, already knew what you were up to, way before you knew she was after you. 

“Fucking, damn it!” You exclaimed, getting tired of getting one upped. 

“We’ll figure this out, Y/N. Let’s just focus on finding her now.”

You nodded, getting back to the task at hand. What you found was information, it answered some questions, but it didn’t solve everything yet. You told Gavin of Lindsay’s address, her favorite hang out spots, everything you could think of that might help you get an idea of where she could have been picked up by security footage. After none of those locations revealed anything, you thought further into your friendship.  _ The group chat…  _

Could you even trust any of your former friends? Were Alanah, Kdin, Jackie… Were they all in on this?

“I have three more addresses for you to check.”

~~~~

After none of your suggestions yielded any results, Gavin and you decided to take a break and grab a drink. You were both standing in the kitchen, whiskey on the rocks in both of your hands, when Ryan walked in. He stopped abruptly as soon as he saw you and avoided eye contact. He walked over to the fridge, grabbed a diet coke and promptly left.

“What was that all about?” Gavin asked. You shrugged and continued sipping your drink, not giving Ryan a second thought. 

By the end of the day, you realized Ryan was avoiding you. Any time the two of you saw each other in the penthouse, (and for how big it is, with this many people living in it, it felt much smaller, the chances of colliding with someone from the crew, quite high), Ryan would not keep eye contact, try and leave the room as soon as possible if you were there, and any time you tried to approach him, he would get into conversation with someone else, singling you out, or simply leave. It was beyond frustrating.

You brought it up with the others and everyone seemed to be in agreement with you about it. Geoff promised that he’d talk with him and clear up the confusion. However, when he came back from  _ the talk,  _ he just sighed heavily and shook his head. Apparently Ryan was denying avoiding you. Not knowing what caused the sudden coldness, you decided to ignore him too. 

It seems that any time you took a step forward with him, you took 10 steps back… It was true before and it still is. Although you thought the two of you were past that sort of behavior, here he was, proving you wrong. 

However, the annoyance and frustration quickly turned to anger and the next thing you knew, when you passed him in the hallway you purposefully drove your shoulder into his side and continued walking. Ryan spun around to face you, but you didn’t need his attention on you at the moment. You walked into your room and slammed your door shut.  _ Why did I ever decide to be a part of this stupid fucking crew?  _ You thought miserably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fakes can be so frustrating sometimes...
> 
> Thoughts? Leave any comments, suggestions, ideas, or impressions in the comments! Always love hearing from you guys! Love you all! ~ Aya <3


	15. Being Nice Is Hard

It’s been a week since you have spoken with either Jeremy or Ryan and from what others have told you, they haven’t spoken with each other either. They act like nothing is happening with the rest of the crew, smiling and chatting happily, but as soon as one of the others comes to the room, there is undeniable tension.

Jeremy and you have fought previously, of course, but you have never lived together before. Overall, the penthouse felt so much like a dormitory you used to live in back in college. You were used to fighting with Jeremy in a way where you just stopped texting, or ignored each other’s calls until you decide that you had enough of the fighting, so you started talking to each other again. When the two of you are living together, it was much harder to ignore the other. Every time you saw him, you almost smiled, almost said hello, and then remembered that the two of you were not on speaking terms. It was infuriating.

It was much easier with Ryan. He seemed to be the easiest to ignore. He did most of the work, honestly. You didn’t even see him for the majority of the day. There were few subtle hints that he was around, diet coke cans in the trash can, tools left around from his knife sharpening kit, the tv being left on Animal Planet. You didn’t mind that you didn’t see him, not at first at least. As the ignoring came close to a week, you were getting exhausted by the effort that was put into this.

You were sitting on the couch with Gavin, watching some youtube Minecraft videos. Some idiots were competing in some sort of game and they seemed pretty funny, but you were barely paying attention. Laughing as soon as Gavin would, to make it seem like you were present. Instead, your mind went wandering into all sorts of scenarios, both of the last week, but also of the before. Before you got into this stupid fight, before you joined the Fakes, before your life got screwed, before your parents passed away, just simply before. 

“You seem far away, love.” Gavin suddenly broke through your thoughts.

“Hmm?” You looked over at him and for the first time noticed that the tv was turned off and he was turned to face you, studying you closely.

“Is this about… well, everything I guess.” Gavin scooted over closer to you. “It must be so hard to go through everything that you’re going through, plus alone. You must feel so… lonely. No best friend, no neighbor, no coworkers, a bunch of people who are still strangers to you for the most part.”

“What is this about, Gavin? Aside from making me feel like shit.” You asked, narrowing your eyes at him. You didn’t want to fight with Gavin as well, but he was getting on your nerves. He seemed completely unaffected by your glare, instead he scooted even closer to you, practically leaning against you and put his hand around the back of the couch. It reminded you of the first time you met him.

“Just know that you’re not alone. You’ve got the rest of us. You can talk to any of us. Just come find us if you ever need to vent. It’s never easy to be on your own and Jeremy isn’t your only friend here.” Gavin said, leaning closely and whispering the words into your ear. 

“I know that, but,” you began, pushing Gavin slightly away. He didn’t seem hurt, giving you some more space. “There’s just so much. I don’t even know if I fully comprehend all of it, yet. By the way, any news on Lindsay’s location? A person can’t just disappear off the grid completely. No trace whatsoever.” 

“No news yet. Although, we think she might be in one of the Roosters safehouses, now that she knows that we know. We’re monitoring all the ones that we know about right now and Alfredo and Trevor left this morning to talk to someone and see if we can get some extra information.” Gavin explained while you simply nodded. “You know, don’t mind Ryan. He gets like this.”

You looked up at that. “Ignores newbies?”

Gavin laughed slightly, but nodded. “Ignores those that he cares about. It’s a… trait of his. You’ll get used to it. He’ll come around.”

“Sounds like a toxic trait.”

“Well, this is Ryan we’re talking about here.”

“What about me?” Gavin and you both whipped your head around to see Ryan leaning against the kitchen door.

“Christ, how long have you been lounging there, dickhead? Bloody scared me.” Gavin asked, holding onto his heart for added effect. 

“Not long, just got here.” Ryan said, walking over to the couch and sitting next to you. You gave him a questioning look, but he just winked at you and smiled. “How are you, Y/N? Long time, no see.” He smirked at you and you wanted to punch him. He went from completely ignoring you to acting like nothing fucking happened?

“So… that’s it? We’re just, what? Talking, again?” You asked, furrowing your brows at him.

He shrugs and sits down on the couch next to Gavin. Gavin looks between the two of you, then quickly excuses himself to  _ ‘help Micoo with… um, laundry, yup. Completely forgot. That. _ ’ You watched Gavin leave, feeling like your online protective wall has just crumbled, leaving you alone with the person you’d really prefer to not talk with right now. You glanced back at Ryan who was lounging on the couch, both arms around the back of it, slightly slouched, legs crossed in front of him, looking directly at you and smirking. 

“So, how have you been?” Ryan asks and it’s such a simple and regular question, that you couldn’t help yourself and burst out laughing. He quirks his eyebrow at you. “Did I ask something funny?”

“Really Ryan? Ignoring me for a week and then, ‘so, how have you been?’ Is that really your way of apologizing?” 

“Apologizing? What for?” You looked at Ryan when he said that and were surprised to see how genuinely confused he looked.

“You’re kidding, right? For fighting Jeremy? For punching me in the face? Does none of that ring the bell?” You asked, scowling at him.

“Jeremy had it coming and you shouldn’t have been in the way.” Ryan shrugged and picked up the tv remote. You snatched it away from him.

“What the fuck, Ryan! And no! You do not get to turn on the tv and ignore this. You are not turning this around and leaving me to be the one to blame for this.” Ryan was looking at the remote in your hand, not meeting your eyes.

“Can I please have the remote back?” He asked. You scoffed at him and shook your head.

“You are unbelievable. I don’t know what I was expecting from the fucking Vagabond.” You threw the remote in his general direction and stomped out of the room. Before you could turn the corner to walk towards your room, you bumped shoulders with someone. Looking over at the surprised face of your face, you growled. Of course you had to bump into him right now. “Great, you too. Go watch the tv with your Battle Buddy!” You told him through gritted teeth, as you strolled past him, shoving his shoulder as you passed him.

~~~~

Jeremy

“What the fuck was that about?” Jeremy asked, as he walked into the living room. 

“What are you talking about?” Ryan asked, channel surfing.

“Y/N. What did you say to her to piss her off that much?” Jeremy asked.

“Nothing much.” Ryan shrugged and continued watching tv. Jeremy sighed and took the tv remote from him. “People have to seriously stop taking the remote from me.”

“V. What happened?” Jeremy asked, sitting down on the couch next to Ryan and scowling at him.

“Like I said, nothing much. Now give me the remote back, before you won’t have fingers to grip it.”

“I know you, Ry. You hide behind threats when you ignore a question. Nothing  _ much _ , is still something.” Jeremy said, holding on to the remote tighter. Ryan narrowed his eyes at him, but then sighed and leaned back into the couch.

“She asked me to apologize. So…” He sighed again. Looking down at his hands between his laps, he started fidgeting with them. “So, I told her that it was her fault that she got in the way.”

“What? Why would you do that? What happened to coming here to apologize to her in the first place?” Jeremy looked at him, shocked.

“I mean, I would have done that, but then she actually asked me to apologize. And I was working up the courage to do so, but then she actually voiced it out loud and it seemed like it wasn’t the time anymore. I mean, you know how I am with apologies in the first place, so I did the only thing that seemed to make sense at the time!”

“You hurt her feelings more than you already have originally. Ryan, is the great Vagabond intimidated by apologies?” Jeremy teased, half heartedly.

“You know that that’s not the case. I just… need time, I guess. Ugh, why is being nice to people so hard?” Ryan buried his face in his hands. Jeremy scooted closer to him and put his hand on his shoulder.

“Maybe because we’re in a gang and usually kill people, not find friends.” Jeremy supplied, but from the grunting noise that Ryan made, it didn’t seem to help.

“I don’t see you trying to apologize to her.” Ryan squinted at Jeremy.

Before Jeremy could reply, the overhead speaker went off in the penthouse. Geoff’s voice boomed into the relative silence of their penthouse.  _ Would Ryan, Jeremy, and Y/N please come into my office. Immediately. And by that, I mean now, dickheads.  _

With a sigh, Jeremy looked back at Ryan, “guess we better see what this is about.”

~~~~

Ryan

“Why does this feel like we’re being summoned to the principal's office for detention?” Jeremy whispered to Ryan as the two of them were standing in front of Geoff’s desk, waiting for you to get there.

As soon as you walked in, Ryan could tell that you would rather be anywhere else. He noted the redness in your eyes and mentally kicked himself, knowing that he was the reason. Or at least, one of the reasons.  _ Fuck I need to actually apologize to her later.  _

“What is this about, Geoff?” You asked, your voice slightly hoarse, and you had to clear your throat.

“I have a job for you three.” Geoff said. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on between the three of you, but whatever it is, figure it out. We have shit to deal with. This isn’t a kindergarten. Trevor and Alfredo just got back to me. We have a last known location for Lindsay. I need you three to go and extract her. Battle Buddies, you know what to do. Give our newbie a Masterclass, won’t you?”

Ryan heard you make a low grumble noise and your hands were clenched tightly in a fist. 

“Here are some burner phones, location is already marked on the GPS.” Geoff handed out the phones to the three of you and went back to looking over some paperwork that he had on his desk. When none of you moved, he looked up. “What the fuck are you wating for? A pat on the back, maybe a Lunchable to go with you? Go!” 

The three of you walked out of his office, you leaving first, followed by Jeremy and Ryan leaving last.  _ This’ll be interesting.  _ Ryan looked down at the GPS marker on his phone.

The Venetian Hotel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I am alive! I am so sorry that this took forever to publish! University is kicking my ass. I also wrote a play that is currently being produced, so we just finished up our auditions and figured out our cast, so it's been insane! I am so sorry! But I am back and I will try to post somewhat regularly. I will figure out a schedule soon.


	16. I AM SORRY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Explanation of where I've been.

Hello everyone. Been a while. I am really sorry for disappearing. 

Due to several reasons, some more obvious than others, I will not be continuing this story. I really enjoyed writing it and getting it to where it's at, but I will not be posting any more chapters. That being said, I am leaving it here and not deleting it. I really enjoyed the world I build and the characters that came to life through this, so I will be giving a different story a try with similar elements. Be on a look out for that. Thank you to everyone who has been with me along the way. See you all in the future with more stories.

Love you all,  
Aya <3


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